IBT 775 
.P6 

1900 



>hF||>MKlMtfrtrt^»^V| 







iitii i iMiiiinimwwflnwwniaftSBaKmiiMt^i tam^ 



Foregleams in Nature 



OF 



Redemption in Christ 



B. W. PIERCt 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap Copyright No 

Shelt'J_G„ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




B. W. PIERCE. 



FOREGLEAMS IN NATURE OF 
REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 



OR 



THE SPIRITUAL REMEDIAL SYSTEM 

FORESHADOWED IN THE 

PHYSICAL 






V^ "^T"" 



byb. w: pierce, b. s. 



" God has not left Himself without witness." — Acts 14: 17. 
" God is not willing that any should perish." — 2 Pet. 3: 9. 
'' God subjected the race to suffering in hope." — Rom. 8:20. 
" Call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from 
THEIR SINS." — Matt. 1: 21. 



PUBI^ISHKD FOR THE AUTHOR 

By christian PUBLISHING COMPANY 

St. IvOuis, Mo. 

1900 



■^wo Com. Heaueo 
AUG 30 1900 

Cffynghf tntry 

SECOND COPY 

Ot<<ver«ri to 

OHOEH DIVISION, 
SEE 






Copyright, 1900, 

BY 

B. W. PIKRCK. 



y'4280 



PREFACE. 

This volume is largely the work of widely sepa- 
rated moments. The line of argument is a new one, 
and for this reason references are made almost exclu- 
sively to Nature and the Bible. 

The problem of evil and suffering and the remedy 
is the theme. Some modern writers attempt to find in 
science a more sure foundation for morality than is 
afforded in the Bible. The author leaves all such to 
extract, as best they may, a system of morality from 
their country cousins, ''the mice and the frogs, the 
insects and the birds,'' and chooses for himself the 
study of man in the light of nature and history, 
of revelation and experience. The work takes 
square issue with the so-called modern scientific 
doctrine that the knowledge of evil through experi- 
ence is necessary to the knowledge of good. It 
repudiates that theory which, while ignoring the 
Bible account of evil, makes suffering a necessary 
step in the process of lifting man to a higher plane 
— a divinely ordained means for calling out the 
higher energies of the soul. Nor is suffering "mere- 
ly an aid to religion.'' 

Suffering, in our present but fallen state, serves, no 
doubt, a wise purpose in that it warns against 
wrong-doing, and, in connection with a physical 
remedial system, it inspires in man the hope for a 
restoration into harmony with his Creator. Admit- 
ting the fact of sin, suffering is a present govern- 
mental necessity. It was not originally so. In our 

3 



4 PREFACE 

present school of experience it is an object-lesson 
against sin; at the same time it is a means in the 
process of restoration, Man cannot sin with im- 
punity is the lesson. Suffering is the result of 
man's own choice to disobey. It never will be re- 
moved until that choice is reversed. 

Nature foreshadow^s the Spiritual Remedial Sys- 
tem. If this be not true, no argument can be made 
from the view-point of science in favor of the latter. 
But if true, no argument can be framed by science 
against the doctrine of a Spiritual Remedial System. 
This solves the problem of evil. It gives man a 
view-point from which he can clearly see the wis- 
dom and the justice and the mercy and the love of 
God in permitting the sinner to suffer. Suffering is 
the result of man's choice of evil. Suffering makes 
man feel his relation to moral law here and now. 
In connection with the remedy it leads him to be- 
lieve in a higher remedial system. It goes farther 
and makes it morally certain that he will be a sub- 
ject of moral law beyond the grave. The love, the 
compassion and the forgiveness of God have all 
been foreshadowed in Nature, and the means of 
restoration have been clearly set forth in the Gospel. 

This Gospel saves the individual, sanctifies the 
home, purifies society, exalts the nation and brings 
the race into vital and eternal fellowship. For it 
looks beyond the grave. It takes away the sting of 
death and robs the grave of its terror. It fills the 
soul with peace, begets a new love, a new life, a new 
hope, and assures the believer of an immortal des- 
tiny. The book of Nature and the Bible agree. 
How well this doctrine has been established the 
reader will judge for himself. B. W. Pie^rce:. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page 
PrKFack 3 



I. 

NATURE AS A WITNKSS AND PROPHKT 

I. Fact of Creation 14 

Chapter 1 14 

Chapter II. 15 

Chapter III 15 

Chapter IV 15 

Chapter V 16 

II. Fact of Providence 17 

III. Fact of Redemption 19 

Universality of Disease 19 

Universal Belief in Remedy 24 

Conclusion 25 

II. 
FULFIIvLKD PROPHECY— PART I. 

I. Preservation of the Race 28 

IE. Laws for Prevention of Disease 28 

III. Laws for Heai^ing 31 

IV. The Fact of Amputation 32 

V. The Fact of Speciai, Cures 34 

Case of Hezekiah 34 

Case of Naaman 34 

Conclusion 37 

(5) 



6 a'ABLE Oli^ CON'TKNTS 

Page 

Method of^Proof in Rkwgion 39 

BeIvIKF— Obkdibnck — ^The Answer 42 

I. Evidence of Chosen Witnesses 42 

II. Evidence of Chosen Nation 43 

III. MONUMENTAI, EVIDENCE 44 

The Sabbath 45 

The Passover 45 

The Pentecost 46 

The Atonement 47 

The Feast of Tabernacles 49 

Foregleams of a Better Hope , 50 

III. 
FULFILLED PROPHECY— PART II. 

I. Marks of Identification 54 

II. His name 55 

III. His Introduction 56 

IV. John's Testimony 60 

A Subject of Prophecy 60 

People's Estimate of John 60 

The Rulers' Estimate of John 61 

The Final Testimony of John. 62 

V. The Father's Testimony 65 

The Father Alone Could Reveal 65 

The Testimony at the Baptism 66 

Why the Jews Crucified Him 68 

False Notion of Messianic Kingdom 68 

Deed Was Done Before the Evidence Was In 68 

Jesus Rebuked Their Leaders 69 

VI. The Testimony of His Works 71 

Summary of A. Campbell , . 71 

Object of Christ's Mission „ 72 

General Claims 73 

Specific Claims , 74 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 

Page 

Case I.— Paralytic Healed 74 

Case II.— Blind Restored 76 

Case III.— Healing at the Pool 78 

Case IV. — Lazarus Raised 79 

Lazarus a witness; the ruler's purpose; new evi- 
dence; Jesus' popularity; council for execution; 

arrest and trial; the motive 81-85 

The World Represented 85 

The World Guilty 87 

A Seeming Triumjih 88 

VII. Testimony at the Crucifixion 89 

On the Cross 89 

In the temple 89 

At the Grave 90 

The Great Issue 90 

The Interested Parties 91 

VIII. The Argument from Prophecy 93 

The Statement of Argument 94 

The Empty Tomb 94 

The Guard's Statement 95 

The Large Money 95 

The Apostles' Statement 96 

IX. A.RGUMENT from THE GrEAT COMMISSION 97 

The Analysis 97 

Remarkable Document 98 

If Christ Did Not Rise 98 

If Christ Did Rise 99 

Tarry at Jerusalem 99 

Promise of a New Comforter 100 

Necessity for Such Guide 102 

A Very Unpopular Theme 102-103 

End of an Old Dream 103 

X. Lesson from the Ascension 105 

New Conception of Christ's Kingdom 105 

Coming of the Spirit 106 



8 TABLE OK CONTENTS 

IV, 

Page 

FULFIIvLED PROPHECY— PART III. 

The Reign of Christ .107 

I. The Basic Fact 107 

II. Peter's Argument in the Case 112 

I.— The Accusation 112 

II.— The Vindication 113 

III.— The Lordship of Jesus 114 

IV.— The Cry for Mercy 115 

V. — ^The Amnesty Proclamation 115 

III. Ten Arguments Based Upon the Presence oe 

A Divine Power 117-126 

IV. Christ's Conception oe the Messiannic King- 

dom Unique 127 

V. Kpisti^es Not Forged 129 

VI. On the Resurrection 132 

VII. Jesus the Savior of the Soui. 135 

VIII. That So-cai,i,ed Most Ineamous Passage 137 

IX. The Soi^e Issue of the Gospeiv 139 

X. The Record as a Unit 143 

XI. The Harmony oe Our Ci.aim 145 

A C0NC1.UDING Chapter. 147-155 



Foregleams in Nature of Redemp- 
tion in Christ. 



The idea of a Supreme Being is as old as our 
race. We may suppose that idea to have come to 
man through direct converse with the Supreme; or, 
through angelic teachers; or, through a divine im- 
press upon man, i, e.^ by intuition; or, in some in- 
stances, through reason; or, in other instances, 
through unusual experiences (Dan. II.); or, by all 
these means combined. But however that idea 
came, it must accord with reason to have weight 
with the world to-day. Now since the first two 
methods are not possible to us, we are limited in our 
discussion to the fields of faith, intuition, reason and 
experience. Passing by, for the present, the field of 
faith, we are ready to affirm: 

If the facts of Creation and of Providence and of 
Redemption are not written upon this world of ours 
so as to be clearly perceived by intuition, reason and 
experience, then, we may well doubt the existence of 
God, and hence also the certainty of a divine revela- 
tion to man. But, if nature unmistakably affirms 
the existence of a physical remedial system for man, 
and hence also of a Great Physician; and if nature, 

in addition, certainly points to His coming to our 
2 (9) 



lO KORKGIvBAMS IN NATURE 

earth, then, the skeptic may well pause to consider 
the claims of that book which alone professes to 
record His visit to our suffering race. 

We readily concede that to demonstrate from 
nature alone the great facts alluded to, and espe- 
cially the latter, in the sense of a life of happiness 
beyond the grave, is no easy task. But, be that as 
it may, we are not confined in our reasoning to the 
testimony of a single witness. 

We assume, for the present, the existence of an 
All- wise Being who created the universe; who saw 
the end from the beginning; who knew that ade- 
quate proof would be demanded by man in order to 
his belief in a future life; and who, therefore, pur- 
posed, as we shall show, to bridge the chasm which 
divides this life from the one beyond the grave. But 
since our proposition is to be established in the 
minds of men and women, we pause to inquire what 
manner of being man is, in order to ascertain the 
method of proof in harmony with his constitution, 
and hence the best adapted to the end in view. 

Man is a trinity, i, ^. , a physical, intellectual and 
spiritual being. Or, to express his nature more 
accurately and clearly — man is a spirit sustaining a 
threefold relation to His Creator. In the first, he is 
related to his Creator, through the realm of matter, 
by a union with a material body. In the second, 
he is related, through the realm of reason, by a mind 
that perceives and interprets objects of thought, ob- 
jective and subjective, in their relations. In the 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST II 

third, lie is related, through the realm of spirit, by 
consciousness, conscience, faith, hope and love. By 
the first, man became a subject of the law of God 
in inanimate nature and in his own body, and hence 
amenable to physical law. By the second, he be- 
came a subject of the law of God in human gov- 
ernment, and hence amenable to civil law. By the 
third, he became a subject of the law of God in 
conscience, and hence amenable to moral law. And 
hence it follows there is, for man, neither nook nor 
corner in the whole universe where divine law does 
not reign, so that freedom apart from that law is 
absolutely impossible. He must be a poor student, 
indeed, who cannot, under these instructors, learn 
of God. 

Not only is man such a being as here defined, but, 
as respects development, he is such an one, and in 
the order here named; and hence a Physician who 
seeks to educate and develop and perfect our spir- 
itual nature, is compelled, by virtue of our constitu- 
tion, to touch us first along the line of the physical, 
then of the intellectual, in order to lay a firm founda- 
tion for our faith in Him as the Physician for the 
spiritual man. This is precisely what has been 
done for man, and in proof of this allegation we now 
introduce our first witness. Our plan of argument 
requires that the evidence must address the present 
needs; must afford a basis for belief in the coming 
ages; and in doing so, must lay a sure foundation for 
belief in a future state; must so marshal events as to 



i^ kore:gi.kams in nature: 

make present approval or disapproval a factor in 
governing conduct in this life; and, finally, must 
give such tangible and conclusive proofs of a future 
life and its conditions as will, when acted upon, 
bring man into harmony with God, and hence into 
happiness supreme. 



OF RlBiDKMPTlON IN CHRISI" I3 



NATURE AS A WITNESS AND PROPHET. 

Thk atheist, assuming to possess the teaching of 
universal experience, deduces therefrom the inviola- 
bility of the laws of nature. From this new assump- 
tion, he deduces the immutability of the laws of 
nature both as to the past and the present. From 
this latter assumption, he deduces the eternity of 
nature and the perfect uniformity of her operations, 
whence he readily concludes: There is no God! 
Miracles are impossible! For if nothing can be that 
has not already been, the wheels of progress must 
cease to roll. Not only so, but Deity Himself, 
according to this logic, would have been estopped in 
the act of Creation; and hence the universe and all 
things therein must always have been, or they are 
not and never can be. 

To this reasoning we reply as follows: 
Universal experience is not competent to deter- 
mine what is impossible even for man to perform. 
Steam as a motor, electricity as a message-bearer, 
light-producer and motor; the telephone, audiphone, 
wireless telegraphy, and ten thousand modern inven- 
tions; the processes of obtaining a beautiful metal 
from the clay beneath our feet, and of calling forth 
so many beautiful and variegated colors from coal, 
and of converting even granite rock into imperish- 



14 FOl^EGLEAMS iN NAl^URK 

able garments for man, — were all, nntil recently, 
entirely hidden from universal experience! But 
these are facts nevertheless. Can the present uni- 
versal experience, with the past before it, declare 
what even man may not yet accomplish? 

But, really, have these gentlemen ever had in 
their possession the testimony of universal experi- 
ence? Have they not driven from the witness-box 
all the Jews of antiquity? And must not all the 
apostles and primitive Christians keep mute before 
this impartial court of inquiry? And, finally, the 
judgment of millions of believers of to-day is held 
to be incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, in 
order for these gentlemen to obtain an universal ex- 
perience suited to their purpose! And yet these 
same would pose as the counsel for all mankind and 
the logicians of all ages! 

I. THE FACT OF CREATION. 

We wish now to read a few brief chapters from 
this same wonderful text-book of nature. We cor- 
dially invite our atheistical friends to criticise. We 
present these chapters as we read and penned them 
when a boy, so that we feel assured that our readers 
will be able to master them. 

^ ^Chapter I. — Only matured animal forms repro- 
duce their kind. The species must, therefore, have 
existed prior to the first reproductive act, and hence 
it follows that nature, as we now see it, did not 



O^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 5 

originate animal forms — she can only reproduce. A 
miracle, therefore, must have preceded man. 

^'Chapter II. — As to the origin of the vegetable 
kingdom, we read that it could not have preceded 
the mineral kingdom, and hence began to be. A 
single example will cover the whole field of discus- 
sion: Which was first, the oak or the acorn? As 
far as our argument is concerned, we care nothing at 
present for the answer. But one thing we do know, 
that, according to our present text of nature, neither 
could have preceded the mineral kingdom. But 
again, according to the present law of reproduction, 
one or the other must have been first. But if either 
was first, then a miracle must be admitted to ac- 
count forthat first oak, or that first acorn. (Gen. II.). 

"Chapter III. — Now as to the beginning of the 
mineral kingdom, we inquire. Which was first, the 
whole or the parts? the earth or its strata? the 
smallest particle of matter visible to the eye, or the 
invisible particles composing the visible? We shall 
let an able thinker answer: ''The things which are 
seen are temporal." And ''the things which are 
seen were not made of things which do appear." 
The seen came from the unseen. This is true of 
every plant, and every animal, and is as certainly 
true of the mineral. No microscopical analysis or 
metaphysical speculation can set aside our conclu- 
sion founded on the logic of facts. 

"Chapter IV. — The mineral does not now con- 
vert itself into the vegetable, nor does the vegetable 



1 6 FORKGLKAMS OF NATtTR^ 

convert itself into the animal tissues. If nature ever 
did so, a miracle there must have been, /. ^., to say 
the eternal uniformity of natural law is a hoax. Evo- 
lution from the lower to the higher is not effected 
by an upward push, but by an upward pull. The 
higher always reaches down and pulls up the lower. 
The vegetable feeds upon the mineral, but does not 
derive its being from the mineral. The animal 
feeds upon the vegetable, but does not derive its 
being from the vegetable. The chain of atheistic 
evolution can never bridge the chasm between the 
non-living and the living, between the unconscious 
and the conscious. 

''Chapter V. — All life we now see manifested is 
the product of antecedent life. The growth of liv- 
ing tissues is the result of antecedent life, animal or 
vegetable, utilizing food products. It is not effected 
by the conversion of living substances into living 
tissues of a higher kind, but by a change from 
non-living substances into living tissues, plant or 
animal. Life alone can bridge that chasm be- 
tween the non-living and the living. This is evi- 
dently true as respects the conversion of non-living 
substances into the living tissues of our own bodies. 
It was true with our first parents, who, as we have 
seen, were not reproductions, nor were they derived 
from the mineral or vegetable, but were necessarily 
the product of miracle — of an antecedent Life. 
Thus nature's thread of life leads us up from the 
non-living to the living; from the living to ante- 



OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 7 

cedent ancestral forms of like nature; from these to 
primitive forms of like nature; and from primitive 
forms to an antecedent Life of vastly superior 
powers — to a Creator. Nature has no lesson of suc- 
cession beyond; analogy is at an end, and human 
reason, for want of data, is estopped from pursuing 
investigation farther. Life must be postulated to 
account for life on the globe. To assume that there 
may be a succession of creators, as with creatures, 
is consistent only with the creed of the agnostic, 
who neither knows that there is a Creator, nor how 
He exists, and yet who knows beyond all doubt, 
that, if a Creator exists, He must have had a Supe- 
rior! On any assumption he may make, the reality 
of miracle is maintained. There is a regnant, vital 
force in nature, and life is lord over death. See 
Steele^ s Popular Chemistry ^ p, i86,^^ 

We are now ready to introduce our creed respect- 
ing the origin of the universe, and especially of life 
on our planet. We shall let another word it for us: 
''Through faith we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God, so that things which are 
seen were not made of things which do appear." 
The material is the manifestation of the unseen — 
the spiritual.'' God is spirit." So much for atheism. 

II. THE FACT OF PROVIDENCE. 

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and har- 
vest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day 



1 8 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

and night shall not cease." (Gen. 8 : ^2). In con- 
nection with this covenant with Noah, we read our 
text: ''God has not left Himself without witness in 
that He did good and gave us rain from heaven and 
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
gladness." (Acts 14 : 17). 

Let us now suppose ourselves to be standing be- 
fore a wheel of fortune. The number of rotations it 
will make with a given impulse and the point of 
stopping are not supposed to be known to any pres- 
ent. A wagers B that it will stop at a certain point, 
and it does so. B, still thinking the wheel to be 
governed by chance, accepts a second wager and 
loses; a third, and loses. What now would B think 
of that mechanism as to its being governed by 
chance? But we continue to observe, and find that 
for ten times in succession, a hundred, a thousand, 
yea, for six thousand times, without a single failure, 
the wheel stops at the identical point indicated by 
A. Who of us would now contend that such mech- 
anism is governed by chance? So in our supposed 
world of chance. A single failure in the seasons 
would have swept the human race from the earth. 
But man is here, and an increasing series, too, and 
hence it follows that not a single cog in the perpet- 
ual motion of the heavens has slipped. Everything 
is in harmony, on time, and serving its purpose. 
No chance- work here! The perpetual motion of the 
heavens is a fact. But man is incompetent to pro- 
duce perpetual motion on any scale whatsoever. So 



OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I9 

that the regularity of the seasons and the perpetual 
motion of the heavens can be accounted for only 
upon the hypothesis that there is a '^God over all 
and through all and in all," ''who is rich unto all 
that call upon Him,'' and this because ''He upholds 
all things by the word of His power. ' ' He never 
forgets nor overlooks the wants of His creatures, 
"seeing He gives to all life and breath and all need- 
ful things.'' 

III. THE FACT OF REDEMPTION. 

We do not wish to drive our skeptical brother 
from the witness-box in order that we might make a 
stronger plea. We desire his presence as a witness ; 
for we purpose now to build an argument on uni- 
versal experience. We believe there is common 
ground on which every son and daughter of the 
race may stand and render a unanimous verdict 
according to the truth; and in this instance the 
voice of the people is the voice of God indelibly 
written upon our very groans and tears, filling us 
with hope. Please examine our first witness. 

Man IS Physically Diseased. — All sane minds 
will admit this fact. The body is as real as the 
spirit. Pain is an universal experience. It is a fact 
of consciousness. To deny the fact of pain is to 
deny the veracity of consciousness. To deny the 
testimony of consciousness is to ignore the very 
foundation of certainty — even of our doubts, to be- 



20 F'ORBGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

come thoroughly agnostic. The notion that pain is 
the product of belief is neither sense, nor philoso- 
phy, nor science, nor religion — not even respectable 
moonshine. Pain produces the belief, and not belief 
the pain: produces the conscious knowledge of the 
fact of suffering. 

The vast army of physicians and their innumera- 
ble host of patients indicate that disease is very gen- 
eral. That it is universal, we prove by an appeal to 
the reader's every source of information, viz., his 
consciousness, intuition, observation, memory, judg- 
ment, reason and faith. We have no live-forevers 
on our planet. (Heb. 9: 27). Perfect physical health 
presupposes at least three things, viz., perfect organ- 
ization at birth, perfect environment and perfect 
obedince to the laws of adaptation. Under such 
conditions we might rationally expect to have per- 
fect digestion, perfect assimilation; also the elimina- 
tion from the system of all dead, innutritions and 
poisonous substances, thus leaving the physical man 
in a normal state. But man is finite in wisdom and 
power, and hence he cannot forecast physical 
changes, nor anticipate their injurious effects, nor 
can he, at the imperative moment, command the 
means of adapting himself to changes in environ- 
ment; so that, if finite wisdom be left undirected, or 
infinite wisdom being given to man yet unheeded by 
him, disease must necessarily follow. A perfect 
physical man is, upon any other supposition than 
that of a complete trust in, and perfect obedience to, 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 21 

the Infinite, an impossibility, as much so as a per- 
fect spiritual man would have been under the law. 
(Rom. VIII.) If there be any imperfection here, 
it must have sprung from man's want of trust in the 
Infinite. In a word, complete trust in God, supple- 
mented by knowledge vouchsafed to man, would 
have prevented sin and all its consequences. I can 
conceive of but two possible methods of educating 
man, constituted as he was and now is, into the like- 
ness and perfection of God. One is through a perfect 
faith and perfect obedience leading into the light, the 
life, the liberty and the happiness of the sons of God 
who never sinned. The other is through faith sup- 
plemented by the bitter lessons of experience in sin. 
Without attempting an argument at this point, 
we assume that man was not always conditioned as 
we now see him. He was created, we learn, neither 
mortal nor immortal, but conditionally mortal and 
provisionally immortal. Provision was made for the 
perfect repair of wasted energies, but access to that 
Tree of Life was conditioned upon man's complete 
trust in his Creator and perfect obedience to His 
law. Man's failure, then, originated in his own 
heart — in disbelief and disobedience; but the effect 
has reached the entire man. Through one act of 
disobedience man severed himself from the fountain 
of perpetual youth, so that now he is a mortal 
stripped of divine aid, save through a scheme of 
mercy that demands of him complete submission of 
his will to that of his Creator. 



22 KORKGI.BAMS IN NATURE 

Behold man, unbeliever in God that he is, but a 
firm believer in himself, surrounded by poisons and 
subject to unforeseen changes, hopefully making his 
wilderness journey to a land where there is no death! 

''Hope springs eternal in the human breast. 
Man never is, but always to be, blest. ' ' 

But the Tree of Life is guarded still, so that 
proud and rebellious man is compelled to learn in 
the school of bitter experience the lesson he would 
better have learned through humility and faith: 
''Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 

We readily grant that all natural appetites, de- 
sires and passions are right in themselves, but their 
tendency is to excess — sin; and hence these must be 
held in subjection to the higher laws of intelligence, 
conscience and the written will of God. But just 
what constitutes excess, appetite cannot determine 
in advance, if ever, and hence we read: "By law 
is the knowledge of sin." Written law defines in 
advance the bounds of legitimate desire and gratifi- 
cation, and thus reveals sin to the sinner. Just as 
certainly, but not so clearly, suffering from pain or 
disease reveals the fact that a law of health has been 
violated. In either case, law, as given in advance 
in the Scriptures, or as revealed in the penalty in 
nature, convicts man of sin. 

Sin is born of "ignorance and unbelief," the fruit- 
ful ancestors of a perverse will ; but knowledge comes 
through faith in God, obedience to His law, and 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 23 

experience arising therefrom, and hence, being at 
first in possession of the former and almost devoid of 
the latter, all we^ like the primitive pair, have fallen 
short of the coveted glory of God. (Rom. 3 : 23). 
Thus it has come to pass, through inheritance and 
personal acts and acquired habits, the whole human 
family now groans on account of sin. Man's de- 
pendence upon God must be learned by man even at 
the cost of life itself. But we are sufferers in hope. 
(Rom. VIII.) God did not subject the race to suf- 
fering without hope. In our present state, suffering, 
to the sinner, is undoubtedly a blessing in that it 
reveals a wrong course of action on his part, and 
urges him to repent and do right. Besides, a rem- 
edy in nature fills him with the hope of recovery, 
and prophesies mercy along the line of the spiritual. 
God has thus subjected man to '^suffering in hope," 
says Paul; and to this agrees universal experience. 
According to this view, suffering for wrong-doing is 
just and right, and ought to continue and will con- 
tinue to be, so long as man continues to rebel. This 
drives us to the conclusion foreshadowed in nature 
and corroborated by the experience of centuries, viz., 
that all men must ultimately learn to do right, or 
that some must suffer endless punishment, or else 
be annihilated. Man cannot sin with impunity. 
Whether hope will be a possibility to the sinner 
beyond the grave, I see no warrant in Scripture and 
have no reliable data in nature for presuming that 
such condition will exist. But this by the way. 



^4 r I^ORKGIvKAMS IN NATURK 

We are now ready to state our second universal 
premise. 

Standing upon the indisputable fact of the uni- 
versality of disease, we proceed to state our second 
universal premise: Belief 07t the part of man in the 
existence of an efficient remedy in nature for each of 
the ills flesh is heir to^ is also universal. Upon this 
belief and its complement^ viz. , that skilled physi- 
cians have ascertained^ or may yet discover^ what are 
the proper remedies for the various physical ailments ^ 
— the entire practice of medicine is founded^ and 
without which it could 7tot exist for a single day. 

We use the term remedy in its broadest meaning 
— anything that will prevent disease, alleviate pain, 
or aid the organs in regaining their normal state. 
The reader will observe that in just so far as we are 
wrong in our second premise, the practice of medi- 
cine is a delusion and a cheat. But that such is 
true of the practice we positively deny. Many 
patients, we are aware, have lost all hope of deriving 
any aid from the skill of their physicians, but who, 
nevertheless, firmly believe that adequate remedies 
exist somewhere in nature. It may be that a resort 
to drugs, unknown as yet, or tired nature's restorer, 
or a change of climate, or mineral springs, or a new 
moral atmosphere is needed; but in any event, we 
have never known one to doubt the fact of the exist- 
ence in nature of efficient remedies. Does the reader 
doubt it, or ever hear of such doubter? 

Physicians, of course, are honor bound to admit 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 25 

the fact of such remedy, or to concede that they 
practice deception whenever they practice medicine. 
The whole medical profession are shut up to our 
conclusion. The patient will never dispute it. The 
Creator has written in man's very groans the uni- 
versal, unwavering, and therefore instinctive belief in 
the existence of a remedial system in nature. How 
earnestly physical pain calls for a remedy! What a 
prophecy of its existence! Here, you philosophers 
of universal experience, make a note. 

Having established the universality of disease, 
and also the universality of belief in the existence of 
efficient remedies in nature, it follows: Unless 
human nature is a fraud^ arid universal experience 
is misleading^ and human reason at her zenith of 
glory is highly deceptive^ — there is a physical reme- 
dial system hi nature; and hence also there is a Great 
Physician who foresaw disease and provided the 
remedy. 

This conclusion is as certainly true as that skilled 
physicians can discover and apply the remedy. 
Prescience and adaptation are here seen, and hence, 
assuredly, if it requires Mind to discover and apply 
the remedy. Mind must have foreseen the disease 
and provided the remedy. An universal, rational 
and well-grounded belief is not the product of 
chance. The fact, then, of a physical, remedial 
system is a fact of nature, of observation and of 
experience. It clearly indicates that the Great Phy- 
sician '4s not willing that any should perish." 
Honor, then, to whom honor is due. Physicians, 



26 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

honor the Great Physician, the Master of the art of 
healing. 

To you we now make a special appeal: — Deny the 
existence of a Great Physician, then you must deny 
that there is a remedial system in nature. Deny 
this latter, then you must admit that the practice of 
medicine is a delusion and a cheat; and not only this, 
but that human instinct, universal experience and 
human reason furnish no reliable data for reaching a 
just conclusion. Are you ready for the alternative? 
The argument here adduced appeals to your indi- 
vidual experience — to every individual's experience. 
It appeals to the honor and intelligence of physi- 
cians in particular. Are your patients sick? Are 
there remedies in nature? Have you discovered 
them? Have you ever ad^ninistered those remedies? 
Has any one been cured under your treatment? 
Which, in your opinion, requires the greater intelli- 
gence, to create and adapt a remedy for a certain 
disease, or simply to discover and apply that rem- 
edy? Back of the discovery and application of the 
remedy we find a physician. Back of the creation 
and adaptation of the remedy there must be a Great 
Physician. And thus it is seen that Nature unmis- 
takably proclaims the existence of a Physical Reme- 
dial System and also of a Great Physician; besides, 
it clearly intimates His coming to visit our suffering 
race. ''God is not willing that any should perish," 
is an oracle of Nature as well as of Holy Writ. 
(^ Pet. 3:9). We are now ready to introduce our 
second witness. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 27 

II. 

FULFILLED PROPHECY. 

PART I. 

At this point the thoughtful reader may inquire 
for proof external to nature and complementary of 
that already adduced. Nature, as we have shown, 
has clearly indicated through the fact of a physical 
remedial system the Great Physician's purpose to 
visit man; and man's soul, feeling the need of such 
aid, has expectantly awaited His coming. If there 
be a Great Physician who wills our health and hap- 
piness, what more reasonable than that He should 
seek to guard us against contracting disease, and, in 
the event of disease, to make known the remedy? 
And may we not rationally assume that, in cases of 
necessity. He would amputate any and all members 
dangerous to the health and the existence of the 
body? Can it be possible, then, that sixty centu- 
ries of suffering and agony and death have come and 
gone, and no medical attention has been given! 
Not even an answer as to the cause of all our suffe;:- 
ing! Or shall we maintain that the Great Physician 
has come? But if so, have those visits been re- 
corded? What is the evidence? 

We are now ready to affirm the following proposi- 
tion: The Great Physician has positively touched 



28 FORKGLEAMS IN NATURE 

man in a supernatural way. This we shall argue 
from the following facts: 

I. The Preservation ok the Race. — To pre- 
serve the race it must be constantly supplied with 
food. But the granaries of earth do not contain 
enough provision to feed the race a single year be- 
yond the coming harvest. So that, had the conditions 
ever been such as to have caused one universal fail- 
ure in crops, the race must have perished from the 
earth. Only our rapid and very perfect means of 
transportation now saves millions annually from 
starvation. But the fact of preservation is before 
us, and hence a divine Providence is manifest. True 
to His pledge to the human family, ''God has not 
left Himself without witness in that He did good 
and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, 
filling our hearts with food and gladness.'' (Gen. 
8 : 22\ Acts 14 : 17. See Jas. 5 : 17, 18,) 

II. The Laws for Prevention ok Disease. — 
In arguing this point we need to mention only a few 
rules of hygiene as laid down by the Great Physi- 
cian. Good men disclaim their authorship. Bad 
men are wholly incompetent. Besides, a tree is 
known by its fruits. 

Appetite, as we have seen, is neither a guide nor 
judge of right-doing. It does not always direct 
actions into right channels, nor does it ever fix 
proper bounds for its exercise. Man is not a crea- 
ture of instinct solely, but of intelligence and con- 
science also; and, as such, he is amenable to moral 



01^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 29 

law. He must learn to know and do right either in 
the school of faith or of experience; otherwise he 
must suffer for wrong-doing. His Creator placed 
him in the school of faith; and with reference to the 
universal and most potent appetite in man, He gave 
the following rules of hygiene: "A male and a 
female created He them." ''Thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's wife." ''Thou shalt not commit 
adultery." "Flee fornication." "Flee youthful 
lusts." "Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after 
her, hath committed adultery with her already in 
his heart." "Keep thy heart with all diligence." 
Had this medical advice from Him who knoweth 
our frame been faithfully followed by man, what 
beautiful, what divine forms would now greet our 
raptured vision, instead of the ungainly and de- 
graded and loathsome witnesses of vice and crime! 
What kingdoms had not fallen! What rivers of in- 
nocent blood had not been shed by monsters in sin! 
Having noticed the strongest natural appetite 
and its perversions and consequent evils, we now 
call attention to a few rules of hygiene with respect 
to the strongest acquired appetite and its accursed 
habit: "Wine is a mocker; .... whoso is 
deceived thereby is not wise." "Abstain from all 
appearance of evil." "Watch and pray that ye 
enter not into temptation." "After this manner 
pray ye, . . . Lead us not into temptation." 
"Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." 
"Touch not, taste not, handle not." Had these 



36 FOREGtKAMS IN NATURE 

and similar hygienic rules laid down by the Great 
Physician in advance, and at the cost of a farthing, 
been heeded, not a single jail, nor state prison, nor 
Keeley Institute could be found in our beloved land 
to-day! Obedience to these few simple rules would 
prevent almost every form of crime and disease, and 
restore our suffering race into a millennium of peace 
and health, prosperity and happiness. The notion 
that man's fall was the first step in his progress 
toward knowledge; that he could not have learned 
the right without first having learned the wrong; 
that he must do evil that good may come, — is, to 
my mind, pure nonsense rather than science. Be- 
hold this modern (?) doctrine that we can only 
know by contrast! We must know two things 
before we can know one! Must know the acids 
before we can know the sweets, and in order to 
know the sweets! It seems to me that reasoning is 
as old as the first temptation. The angels that 
sinned not and the Lord Himself have not taken the 
first essential step toward real knowledge! So said 
His Satanic Majesty. So teaches naturalism — ani- 
malism. When Adam tasted of this knowledge by 
contrast he could answer, '^I was afraid and I hid 
myselfy (Gen. 3:10). The mystery of evil and 
suffering is not solved on the above hypothesis. 
Among the purposes of suffering we mention these: 
(i) To enforce the sentence of guilt. (2) To teach 
us that we are subject to law that may not be vio- 
lated with impunity. (3) That we are dependent on 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 3 1 

God for our existence and health. (4) That this 
latter can be had only through obedience to law. 
(5) And, in connection with a remedial system in 
nature, to inspire in us a hope of spiritual healing. J 
III. The Fact of Laws for Healing. — People 
become sick. What then? All adown the ages th 
Great Physician, through prophets, apostles and 
ministers, has been calling unto man, ''''Turn ye, 
turn ye: for why will ye die?'' ^^Let the wicked 
forsake his way^ and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts, and let him turn unto our God.'' The 
voice of one long foretold (Isa. 40:3) cries out in 
the wilderness of Judea, ''^Repent ye: for the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand." The chosen twelve, 
and afterward the seventy, took up the same theme: 
^^ Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
The Master said: ^''Except ye repent^ ye shall all 
likewise perish,^ ^ ''''God now co}nmandeth all men 
everywhere to repent. ^^ (Acts XVII.) The reader 
will notice that this is medical advice for the phys- 
ical man as well as for the spiritual. It lies at the 
very basis of all sound philosophy of cure. It is 
the divine prescription for all ages, for all peoples 
and for all climes. This is not an arbitrary com- 
mand, making it right to repent, but is the wise, 
reasonable and loving advice of the Great Physician, 
founded upon the very nature of man as related to 
health. It is the authoritative counsel of infinite 
wisdom to return to God in harmony with the law 
of God — the law of health. Moral law and the laws 



3^5 i^^oR^^LEiAMS IN nature; 

of hygiene must harmonize. Unity pervades all di- 
vine law. 

IV. The Fact of Amputation. — We would 
naturally expect, as already indicated, that the 
Great Physician, knowing as He does our ignorance 
of self and the danger of misgovernment arising 
therefrom, would lay down some simple rules in ad- 
vance for the government of this machine so fear- 
fully and wonderfully made; and when necessity 
demands it, he would amputate any and all mem- 
bers dangerous to the existence and health of the 
body, i. ^., the race. And hence we read, "A male 
and a female created He them." The equal divis- 
ion of the sexes in all ages since creation, means 
that a law of physical well-being was written in 
creation and in our constitution. And when the 
violation of law here suggested became well-nigh 
universal, filling the earth with violence and blood 
and open rebellion against Heaven, (Gen. VI.), in 
order to preserve our race from physical rottenness 
and extinction, as also from a hopeless spiritual 
degeneration, the Great Physician brought a flood 
upon the ungodly, saving but eight righteous souls. 

Again: When Sodom and Gomorrah had plunged 
into bestiality beyond the possibility of restoration, 
nothing remained but to amputate, which fact was 
accomplished by fire and brimstone. (Gen. XX.) 
This is an example to warn modern Sodomites. 
(Judey.) 

So, too, when the cup of the seven nations of 



OF RIB^DEMPI'ION IN CHRIST 33 

Canaan became full, when they were offering their 
sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to false 
gods, another amputation became necessary. (Deut. 
12:30, 31). 

Coming down to the year 70 A. D., when the 
Jewish nation had become like a man possessed with 
seven unclean spirits (Matt. XII.), or as a carcass 
ready for the vultures (Matt. 24 : 28), and after the 
Great Physician had done all in His power to re- 
store to health, and they would not take the rem- 
edy, — another amputation by war and pestilence 
was made to teach all nations the necessity of obe- 
dience to the divine prescription. They should 
'^become an astonishment, a proverb and a by- 
word." They should ''be scattered from one end of 
the earth even to the other;" ''should become idola- 
ters," "and should find no ease;" and finally we 
read, "Neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest." 
(Deut. XXVIII.) Here is prophecy, and its fulfill- 
ment is before us. Even the hissing, "Don't that 
beat the Jews!" bears testimony to the divine origin 
of our Scriptures. 

Now what were those amputations but "mercy 
rejoicing against judgment?" (Psa. CXXXVI.) 
What physician in possession of common sense and 
skill in his right hand, cannot vindicate the wisdom, 
the justice and the mercy of the Great Physician in 
these and in all similar cases of amputation? In 
the midst of wrath He remembers mercy. (Hab. 
3:2). Men do forfeit their right to live, man him- 



34 FOREGLKAMS IN NATURE 

self being judge. And may not the Great Physi- 
cian and Judge of all the earth do with a nation as 
the lesser ones deal with individuals? Reader, do 
you think He understands the case? or should He 
call to His aid some very wise agnostic? (Rom. 
I : i8.) 

V. The Fact ok Special Cures. — By reference 
to this same record of fulfilled prophecy, we learn 
that the Great Physician has positively healed man 
in numerous and well authenticated instances. Of 
these we need mention but a few: 

1. He lengthened out Hezekiah's life fifteen 
years. The patient was a king, and the healing 
was in answer to prayer. But the will of the Healer 
and the prescription were made known to the king 
through the prophet Isaiah. The event was known 
to the whole nation and recorded by the prophet 
(Isa. XXXVIII.), and also in the public records of 
the nation. (2 Kings 20 : i-ii; 2 Chron. 32 : 24-32). 
The news of the healing reached the king of Baby- 
lon, from whom Hezekiah received letters of con- 
gratulation and a present. (Isa. 39 : i). Surely ^Hhis 
thing was not done in a corner!" 

2. The case of the Assyrian general is also in 
point. Naaman was perfectly cured of his leprosy 
by dipping, at the prophet's direction, seven times 
in the river of Jordan. Faith in God and love for 
her master begat in the heart of a captive maid a 
wish that her lord could be with the prophet in 
Israel to be healed of his leprosy. That wish fell 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 35 

from her lips, reached the ear of the king and 
moved him to send his great general, accompanied 
with a train of servants, bearing many talents of sil- 
ver and gold, and several changes of raiment, as a 
present to the prophet. One fact serves to give this 
cure the greatest publicity. General Naaman car- 
ried a letter of introduction from the king of Assyria 
to the king of Israel. It read thus: ^'Now, when 
this letter is come unto thee, behold I have there- 
with sent Naaman my servant to thee that thou 
mayest recover him of his leprosy.'' On reading 
this royal request, the king exclaimed, ''Am I God, 
to kill and make alive, that this man doth send unto 
me to recover a man of his leprosy! Wherefore, 
consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a 
quarrel against me." 

Hope dies; Naaman turns away in despair. But 
Elisha, hearing of the king's behavior, sent a mes- 
senger to say: ''Let him come now to me, and he 
shall know that there is a prophet in Israel." 
"Naaman came with his horses and his chariot and 
stood at the door of Elisha." As if to strip the gen- 
eral of all thought of greatness, and to bring him by 
faith to the severest test of humility, the prophet 
sent his servant to say, "Go wash in the Jordan 
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, 
and thou shalt be clean." 

Naaman was wroth, and turned away, saying, 
"Behold, I thought, he will surely come out to me, 
and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his 



36 f'oregle^ams in NA'TURK 

God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover 
the leper." But especially was he wroth because of 
the condition imposed, viz., to dip in the muddy 
Jordan instead of Abana or Pharpar, rivers of 
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel. But 
his servants pleaded; the leprosy clave to him; the 
Jordan came into view: and the words, ^'Wash and 
be clean," rang in his ear. ''Naaman went down 
and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according 
to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came 
again like the flesh of a little child." In a joyful 
mood he returned and confessed: ''Behold, now I 
know that there is no God in all the earth but in 
Israel!" 

No medical work ever presented a better authen- 
ticated fact of healing than this one. The witnesses 
were a captive maid, the king of Assyria, a king of 
Israel, a prophet of Israel, the prophet's servant, a 
whole train of servants — eye-witnesses, and the fact 
of record. 

Gehazi's evidence becomes especially strong and 
monumental. When Elisha refused the presents, 
his servant had a day-dream. He dreamed of vast 
riches, of beautiful and costly garments, of olive- 
yards and vineyards, of sheep and oxen, of menserv- 
ants and maidservants. His cupidity moved him to 
follow after and get gain from Naaman. He lied to 
Naaman, and on his return lied to the prophet. As 
a reward for all this cupidity, lying and seeking to 
make merchandise of the favor of God, the prophet 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 37 

said: ^^The leprosy of Naaman therefore shall cleave 
unto thee and unto thy seed forever. And he went 
out from the prophet's presence a leper as white as 
snow." (2 Kings 5:27). This living monument to 
the healing of Naaman served to impress the fact of 
healing upon thousands of Israelites. This thing 
was not done in a corner. If the healing did not 
take place the event could never have gained cre- 
dence. Jesus refers to it in such a way (Luke IV.) 
as to have called forth denial had the truth of the 
fact ever been in dispute. Now, reader, please note 
the following facts: 

1. The virtue was not — in the water. 

2. The virtue was not — in the dipping. 

3. The virtue was 7iot — in the general. 

4. The virtue was not — in the prophet. 

5. The virtue was not — in all of them combined. 

6. But the virtue was in God^ and was put forth 
at the time, and in the act, of Naaman's coming to 
God in His appointment, (II. Kings V. For a par- 
allel faith, see Josh. VI.) 

Some power above nature did touch 7nan up07i the 
plane of physical healing as we have already shown. 
Nothing short of a chain of events such as we have 
cited and similar displays of power could have origi- 
nated and perpetuated the belief in such wonders. It 
is our purpose to show that the same power was 
exercised in succeeding ages as the basis for a belief 
in a higher remedial system. 

Nature and the Bible, we may here observe, per- 



38 FORKGI.BAMS IN NATURE 

fectly accord as complements of one universal system 
of morality. The never-failing, impartial, universal 
and providential care and goodness of God toward 
our race are seen in the sun that shines upon the 
evil and the good; and in the rain that falls upon the 
just and the unjust; and in the fruitful seasons that 
fill man's heart with food and gladness. (Matt. V.; 
Acts XIV. ) But the Author of nature as God over 
all and in provision rich unto all is^ in fact ^ rich unto 
those only who call upon Hi^n; so that we may read 
from nature as from the Bible, Whosoever calls upon 
God^ in His appointments, shall be saved. And on 
the other hand. He that disbelieveth^ and as a conse- 
quence does not call upon God in His appointments, 
shall be condemned. ''God is no respecter of per- 
sons." (Mark XVI.) 

Nature, in providing a physical remedial system, 
prophesied of a higher remedial system for the soul. 
Suppose no provision had been made in nature for 
the healing of physical disease, how should we ar- 
gue, in such a world of suffering, in favor of a spir- 
itual remedial system! And would not the unbe- 
liever, in the absence of such provision, present an 
unanswerable argument against the alleged claim for 
a higher remedial system! But in harmony of the 
voice of God in nature. His dealings with the race 
anciently. His prophecies to his chosen people, the' 
types and shadows of the Jewish religion — all clearly 
foretold the coming to earth of "One who should 
take our infirmities and bear our sicknesses." So 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 39 

general was this expectation that He was aptly 
styled, ''The Desire of All Nations.'' See Josephns, 
Wars VII., 5, 4; Snetonius' Life of Vespasian, Sec. 
4; and Tacitus, History, V., 13. (McGarvey on 
Evidence.) 

Our line of argument suggests that we now call 
another witness. Leaving the fields of natural in- 
tuition, reason and purely physical experience, we 
enter upon the field of faith. 

Our knowledge of the past rests upon faith and 
the memory of personal experiences and intuition. 
But experience cannot pierce the veil of the future 
and declare what lies beyond death. Common ex- 
perience and universal longing may, however, beget 
a hope. Science may point to the future as a reason- 
able answer to our longings and aspirations. But all 
our reliable knowledge concerning the future life 
must necessarily rest upon faith — that a voice has 
broken the silence from the eternal world and has 
spoken in tones of authority concerning the redemp- 
tion from the grave. That authority has been ex- 
pressed in terms of power — physical, intellectual and 
spiritual. Having already touched upon the first, 
we now invite attention to the second. We present 
below what we have termed 

god's method of proof in religion. 

Faith is the fundamental principle of all human 
action in this life. How natural that religion should 



40 FORBGLBAMS IN NATURB 

rest upon that principle! Again, the unswerving 
fidelity of God to His word is the fundamental propo- 
sition to be proven in religion, Jewish or Christian. 
But how can such a proposition be established in the 
minds of men and women? Evidently in but one 
way. His word must be spoken, and men must exer- 
cise faith in His promise, obey and come to the an- 
swer. So that the fundamental principle of proof in 
religion is faith in God's word, leading the believer 
through obedience unto the answer. Prove Him by 
putting His truthfulness and veracity to the test. 

Our knowledge of the past in religion is derived 
solely through faith in God's word. Who can point 
to a single grain of truth in religion not found there- 
in? (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17.) Our knowledge of the 
present verities of religion is necessarily grounded 
upon the sacred records of the past. Deny those 
records, and the mist of eternal darkness spreads 
over our race. Our knowledge of the future rests 
upon the certainty of alleged supernatural facts of 
the past, and the stream of life springing out of 
those facts, and upon a present experience based 
upon the alleged facts of the past, and constituting 
a verification^ in part ^ of the claims of the gospel, 
and looking with unclouded vision to the future for 
complete verification. 

If our position be correct, then, our knowledge of 
pardon, and of present acceptance with God, and of 
the future state, cannot be more certain than the 
foundation facts upon which these rest. In othej 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 4 1 

words, no man can be more certain that he has been 
pardoned than he is of the trnth of the alleged fact, 
viz., that '^Jesus Christ died for our sins, according 
to the Jewish Scriptures''; or, ^'that He rose for our 
justification"; or, that ''He now lives at the right 
hand of God to make intercession for us.'' So that 
we are driven to the conclusion, viz., that the sole 
source and standard of knowledge in religion is 
God's word given to chosen witnesses, and verified 
by their personal experiences, and through them to 
the masses. There is no stopping point between this 
position and the grossest skepticism on the one hand 
and the wildest fanaticism on the other. 

In accordance with this method of proof, God 
called out upon faith in His word, chosen witnesses. 
To these He verified His every word of promise. 
He made each verification the basis of a broader, 
deeper and stronger faith. See the case of Abraham, 
who, against all natural grounds of hope, believed 
in hope. (Gen. 15:5,6; 17:1-22; 22:1-18; Heb. 
II : 17-19). Tn doing this. He made the tests of 
such character, variety and number, and the circum- 
stances of the fulfillment such as to remove every 
doubt from the minds of the chosen witnesses. 
Through these chosen witnesses and by these public 
tests. He demonstrated His fidelity to His word, 
unto the masses — both friends and enemies. 

The past creates expectation; the present must 
realize to some extent the expectation of the past; 



43 KOREGI.KAMS IN NATURE 

and this latter must fill us with hope for the future. 
At first, the ground of belief must be presented in 
the present. This was accomplished by miracles 
wrought in the presence of those who were to be 
convinced — as in the healing of Naaman, and in the 
raising of the widow's son; and in prophecy cover- 
ing but a short interval — as of the plenty of food 
only one day ahead (II. Kings VI., VII.); or that 
to Peter concerning the fish with the coin in its 
mouth — Peter's tribute money. (Matt. 17:24-28). 
As the chain of the present recedes into the past and 
the prophetic links come into view — each prophecy 
being fulfilled accurately and at the appointed time, 
the evidence, at length, reaches a degree of cer- 
tainty that admits of no doubt. The order of nature 
is not more certain than the fulfillment of prophecy. 
And when the chain of prophecy extends beyond the 
grave and we look back upon the almost innumer- 
able links of fulfilled prophecy, we may exclaim in 
the language of mathematics. True up to the limit, 
true at the limit. 

Now the steps in the proof are very simple and 
are as follows: 

BKI.IKF OBEDIENCE THE ANSWER. 

I. The evidence of chosen witnesses we sum up as 
follows: Abel believed God, obeyed God and came 
to the answer — God testified to his righteousness. 
Noah believed God, obeyed God, and came to the 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 43 

answer — salvation from the deluge. Moses believed 
God, obeyed God and came to the answer — led his 
people out of bondage. Naaman believed the man 
of God, obeyed the man of God, and came to the 
answer — wholly cured of leprosy. With unanimous 
voice these and hundreds of others declare, God is 
faithful, 

II. The testimony of the chosen nation we may 
briefly state as follows: Israel, in forsaking Egypt, 
believed the word of God through Moses, obeyed 
that word — Go forward — and came to the answer, 
viz., deliverance through the Red Sea. 

Again: In the face of perils from hunger, from 
thirst and from nakedness, from poisonous serpents, 
from armed and powerful enemies on all sides, they 
believed God, obeyed God, and came to the answer — 
standing upon the border of the promised land. 

For forty years the pillar of cloud had signaled to 
march, had led the way, given shade by day and 
light by night to the tented hosts of Israel. During 
all these years the manna distilled as dew, their gar- 
ments waxed not old, and their feet never grew sore. 
They slaked their thirst in the limpid stream which, 
at the command of their leader, gushed forth from 
the rock of flint, and they heard their God, out of 
the midst of fire, proclaim in audible voice ^ His law 
from the holy mount. 

Unbelief saw nothing but death ahead. '^Through 
that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery 
serpents and scorpions and drought; and where there 



44 KOREGIvEAMS IN NATURE 

was no water/' the eye of reason perceived no way, 
and natural hope saw no star to tell of a land of 
plenty beyond. To the ken of natural vision, the 
prophecy of death for the wives and little ones must 
certainly come true. Well might one ask, Why did 
Moses lead his people into such terrible perils? 
After forty years of reflection, Moses gave an answer 
that commends the wisdom of his course to all future 
ages. We give that answer in his own words: 
^^Thou shalt remember all the way which the I^ord 
thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness 
to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was 
in thine heart whether thou wouldest keep his com- 
mandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suf- 
fered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, 
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers 
know, — that He might make thee to hnozv that man 
doth not live by bread only^ but by every ivord that 
proceedeth out oj the mouth of the Lord,, doth 7nan 
live:' (Deut. VIII). 

By faith^ Israel crossed over the Jordan on dry 
ground. (Josh. Ill) . By faith the walls of Jericho 
fell. (Josh. VI). By faith the seven nations of 
Canaan were overthrown and God gave His people 
rest in the land He had sworn to give to Abraham 
and his seed after him. 

III. The monumental evidence in proof of God's 
dealings with his chosen people, gathers chiefly 
about the Sabbath^ the Passover^ the Pentecost and 
the Feast of Tabernacles. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 45 

The Sabbath commemorates primarily the finished 
work of Creation, God began and finished the work 
of creation and ceased to create. Then, we are told, 
The morning stars sang together and all the sons of 
God shouted for joy. (Ex. 20 : 11). It points 
back to a first day — a day of primary importance. 
And, in the light of what has gone before and is to 
follow, it points to a new and higher creation in the 
distant future, the dawn of which is even now 
visible. Besides, it is closely associated with the 
Redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage. 
(Dent. 5: 15). And for that reason Israel was com- 
manded to keep it holy. It also served to emphasize 
the fact of the Special Providence of God over His 
chosen people in sending manna to sustain life dur- 
ing their journey to the land of promise. (Ex. XVI). 
The manna fell six days, but on the seventh it fell 
not. 

The second commemorates the fact of the destruc- 
tion of all the first born of Egypt not under the 
blood; and the redemption from bondage and death 
of Israel, Jehovah's first born, through their faith in 
the blood and under the blood of the Paschal lamb. 
The sentence of death rested upon every soul of 
Israel not under blood. Deliverance, then, was not 
from bondage merely but from impending death for 
all not under the blood. Deliverance from bondage 
and diseases incident thereto was simultaneous with 
their deliverance from death and by the same means, 
viz., faith in the blood. Their passage out from 



46 i^ORKGtfiAMS IN NATURE 

under bondage into freedom was made under ttie 
blood. Every redeemed soul was covered with the 
blood. God passed over the blood and all under 
the blood. Redemption through faith in the blood 
of God's appointment is the grand fact here com- 
memorated. It clearly typifies the far greater salva- 
tion through the precious blood of the true Paschal 
lyamb. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for 
us. (Ex. 12; I Cor. 5:7). 

The Feast of Pentecost was kept on the fiftieth 
day after the Passover. The day following the 
Passover was the Sabbath. On the next day the 
first fruits of the barley was presented. (Lev. 23 : 10- 
12). At that time the barley ripened at Jericho. 
(Josh. 3 : 15). The priest waved the first fruits of 
the harvest ''on the morrow after the Sabbath'' fol- 
lowing the Passover (Lev. 23 : 11). They counted 
seven full weeks, beginning the count with the mor- 
row after the Sabbath (Lev. 23 : 15). The count 
ended with the morrow after the seventh Sabbath. 
''Seven Sabbaths shall be complete" (Lev. 23 : 15). 
The Pentecost fell on the first day of the week. At 
this season the wheat ripened, and the Jews brought 
the first fruits of the wheat and first fruits of all the 
* ground. (Lev. 23: 17-20; Ex. 23: 19; Deut. 26: 2-10). 
No Jew was permitted "to eat bread nor parched 
corn nor green ears," until he had first worshiped 
God in this beautiful service of offering the first 
fruits. The meaning of this feast and the law is set 
forth in Deut. 26 : 2-10. The Jew began his con- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 47 

fessioii to the priest as follows: '^I profess this day 
unto the Lord thy God that I am come into the 
country which the Lord sware unto the fathers for 
to give us." The priest then received the offering 
and set it before the altar, and the worshiper con- 
tinued his address before the Lord: ''A Syrian 
ready to perish was my father, and he went down 
into Egypt and sojourned there with a few, and be- 
came there a nation great, mighty and populous." 
The address then recites the grand steps in coming 
to the promise of God unto the fathers, and closes 
with these very appropriate words: ''And now, be- 
hold, I have brought the first fruits of the land 
which Thou, O Lord, hast giVen me." 

The fidelity of God to His promise is the central 
fact here commemorated. This was effected through 
a wonderful redemption and providence over His 
people. The feast looks forward to an abundant 
harvest. It is closely associated in time with the 
giving of the law, and thus points forward to a dis- 
tant but joyful Pentecost when other husbandmen 
should bring the first golden sheaves of a new har- 
vest. (Acts II). 

The next great festival was the Feast of the 
Tabernacles. This was kept during the week be- 
ginning the fifteenth day of the seventh month of 
the Jewish sacred year. On the tenth day of the 
same month was th.^ Ato7tement^ to which we briefly 
refer. On that day the high priest made a sin-offer- 
ing first for himself and afterwards for the people. 



48 FOREGLEAMS IN NaI^URE 

(Lev, XVI). Arrayed in the beautiful, holy gar- 
ments, (Ex. XXVIII), with a censer filled with 
burning coals from the altar before the lyord, and 
with the blood of a bullock, and sweet incense, he 
entered the Most Holy, bearing the names of all 
Israel upon his heart. The cloud of incense arose 
and filled the Most Holy, covering the mercy-seat. 
The high priest then sprinkled the blood with his 
finger upon the mercy-seat; and before the mercy- 
seat he sprinkled the blood seven times. He then 
took of the congregation two goats for a sin-offering, 
and cast lots upon the goats: one for the Lord, and 
one for the scape-goat. He then slew the former, 
and sprinkled its blood upon and before the mercy- 
seat, as in the case of the bullock. With the blood 
of these animals he cleansed the Holy Place and the 
tabernacle and the altar. 

He next took the live goat, laid both his ^hands 
upon its head, and confessed over him all the iniqui- 
ties of the children of Israel, and all their transgres- 
sions in all their sins, putting them upon the head 
of the goat; then he sent the scape-goat away by a 
fit man into the wilderness. ^'And the goat bare 
upon him all their iniquities into a land not inhab- 
ited." He next offered a ram as a burnt-offering 
for himself and one for the people. The bodies of 
the animals whose blood was brought into the Most 
Holy were carried forth without the camp, in after 
times without the city, and burned in entirety. 
Thus the high priest made an atonement for himself 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 49 

and for the people. This atonement was made every 
year, showing that it did not make the worshiper 
perfect as respects the conscience. The world needed 
an offering that would be accepted once and for all 
time. And that was made only by the shedding of 
the more precious blood upon Calvary, of which all 
the crimson streams from patriarchal and Jewish 
altars were but types. (Lev. XVI.; Ex. XXVIII.; 
Heb. 9 : 22), 

With sins all covered by the blood of the atone- 
ment, and with the wheat and all the fruits of the 
land garnered, the chosen people entered joyfully 
upon the Feast of the Tabernacles. It was indeed a 
harvest home. But it was more. It was a monu- 
mental institution as well. It was another call to 
remember; another effort to unify the chosen people. 
In this marvelous history we see the hand of a Mas- 
ter-workman forging the chain of unity. He bound 
His people together by the ties of one common 
blood; by the ties of common suffering in one long 
night of cruel bondage; by the ties of one common 
deliverance and redemption through blood; by the 
ties of one common and unparalleled training in 
that greatest school of faith ever held on earth. But 
now they need to be unified as His peculiar people 
in the land of promise, so as to conserve that unity 
unto all coming generations. 

This object was effected in part by the great 
national gatherings already referred to. In this lat- 
ter they were warned not to forget their humble be- 



50 I^ORKGLBAMS IN NAl'URK 

ginning; that God caused them to dwell in booths 
when He brought them out of Egypt. In the very 
jaws of death He had taught them to solve the prob- 
lem of life. To the eye of natural reason all was 
lost. Unbelief saw no bread and no water for wives 
and little ones. Natural hope, seeing no star, sick- 
ened and died in the bitterness of despair. But 
faith^ laying hold on the unlimited resources of 
nature's God, walked triumphantly forward into the 
land of promise. Here the devout Jews, during 
their great national feasts, commemorated the won- 
derful events of their past, carefully studied the 
present, and longingly turned their eyes toward the 
future. 

FORKGI.KAMS OF A BETTER HOPE. 

The bondage of sin had not been broken. All 
their great heroes of faith were numbered with the 
dead, and ere long they, too, would be gathered unto 
the fathers. But what of the promise? (Gen. 22: 
18). Watchman, what of the night? A crimson 
stream was ever flowing onward. It pointed to a 
salvation greater than they had ever yet known. By 
blood, the power of death was averted on the night 
of the first Passover. By blood, on the day of atone- 
ment, all their guilt, for the time being, was cov- 
ered and the scapegoat bare their sins into a land 
uninhabited. The center of unity and hope now 
shifts from the fields of past and present experiences 



OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 5 1 

to that of the future — to that of prophetic vision. 
The gates of death closed over all their friends, and 
no voice broke the silence of the tomb to tell of 
hope beyond. The need of a Redeemer from sin and 
from the guilt of sin, from death and the dominion 
of the grave, becomes more and more apparent as 
the years roll on. 

The diversity of imagery made use of to set Him 
forth in His relations is very remarkable. He 
should break the power of him who held man in the 
grave. (Gen. 3:15). He should destroy the vail 
once spread over all nations. (Isa. 25:8; i Cor. 15: 
54"57)- He is styled the Desire of all nations. 
(Hag. 2:7). He is the seed in whom all nations 
should be blest. (Gal. 3:16; Gen. 22:18; Acts 26: 
4). ^'His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsel- 
lor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The 
Prince of Peace." (Isa. 9:6). Jacob, \n his dying 
hour, prophesied that ^^the scepter should not depart 
from Judah nor the royal staff from between His feet 
until Shiloh come"; and that ''unto Him should the 
gathering of the people be." (Gen. 49:10). Moses 
foretold the coming of a prophet who must be heard 
by the Jews upon the penalty of their being cut off 
from Israel. (Deut. 18:15-19). Malachi styles Him 
''the messenger of the covenant whom ye [Jews] 
delight in," and fixes the time of His coming. He 
shall come to His temple; hence before 70 A. D. . 
Micah tells us He should be born in Bethlehem of 
Judah. (5:2). Isaiah tells of his wonderful mira- 



52 FORKGLEAMS IN NATURE 

cles Upon the blind and lame, the deaf and the 
dumb. (35:5, 6; 42:7; 53:4). But by whatsoever 
name He is called, He is always to be the Savior of 
His people. 



OK REDKMPTION IN CHRIST 53 

III. 

FULFILLED PROPHECY. 

PART II. 

We are now to show that the foregleams in nature 
and the Jewish religion have been in a large degree 
realized in history and in Christian experience. 

In order to make the argument tangible, we pass 
from the vague, the general, the emotional, and 
highly figurative language of the foregleams, to the 
positive, specific and concrete statements of proph- 
ecy. We must ' 'reason out of the Jewish Scriptures, 
opening and alleging that the Christ must needs have 
suffered and risen from the dead; and that this Jesus 
whom we preach unto you is the Christ." (Acts 
17:2, 3). Some one has said, ''The literature of the 
future is a lofty literature," and certainly no part of 
that literature better deserves the name, and at the 
same time so exactly meets the conditions of legiti- 
mate argument, as the LIU. of Isaiah. 

This remarkable prophecy was translated into the 
Greek not later than 170 B. C. It was widely cir- 
culated, and was read prior to the coming of Christ 
by thousands of Greeks and by myriads of Jews. 
The Ethiopian treasurer was reading from this same 
chapter in the Septuagint version when Philip met 
him. (Acts 8.28). It is then beyond doubt 
prophecy. 



54 FOREGLKAMS IN NATURE 

I. The Marks ok Identif^ication. — These are 
so numerous and explicit that no impostor could pos- 
sibly meet the conditions of this prophecy. 

1. The subject of it should be adjudged innocent 
and then condemned, be justified and afterward slain. 
(Acts 8:33; John 19:4-6). ^'/find no fault in Him. 
Take j^ Him and crucify Him.'' — Pilate. 

2. He should die violently, yet willingly — ''cut 
off,'' yet ''satisfied." (John 10:18). 

3. He should be with "the wicked in His 
death," but "with the rich and noble in his grave." 
(John 19:38-42). 

4. He should be "oppressed and afflicted," but 
"He would not open His mouth," i. e., in com- 
plaint. "He reviled not again," said an eye-witness, 
(i Peter 2:23). 

5. "Bruised of God," but "the pleasure of the 
Lord should prosper in His hand." (i Peter 3:18). 

6. "He should see of the travail of His soul and 
be satisfied." ^'^ It is finished, ^^ (John 19:30; Rev. 

5-9; 7-9)- 

7. "He should make intercession for the trans- 
gressors!" "Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do." (Luke 23:34). 

8. "He should be cut off out of the land of the 
living," but afterwards "He should prolong his 
days." (John 10:17, 18; Acts 1:3; i Cor. 15:1-8). 

9. After His death He should become a great 
ruler of earth. "I will divide Him a portion with 
the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the 



OF REDEMPTION IX CHRIST 55 

strong/' The fulfillment is before us. (Luke 24: 

46:47)- 

10. And, finally, the basis of His authority and 

dominion differs from that of even- other ruler. It 
is thus stated by the prophet: '^Because He hath 
poured out His soul unto death; and he was num- 
bered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of 
many, and made intercession for the transgressors/' 

Jesus of Xazareth, a?id He alone, ful fills every 
condition of this remarkable prophecy , 

n. His Name. — As age upon age have come 
and o:one, an ever-increasino; stream has been flow- 
ino; on throuo;h our dark, sinful and sufferino^ world, 
bearinor its heavenlv oifts of lio;ht and life, of rio^ht- 
eousness and peace, of health and beauty, and hence 
it becomes us to inquire, Whence the adequate and 
the unfailing fountain? To this and myriads of 
kindred questions, the only pertinent and conclusive 
answer is, Jesus. Does nature proclaim a physical 
remedial system, and hence a Great Physician? 
Call His name Jesus. Has God written in our very 
groans and tears an undying belief in a Great Phy- 
sician and an earnest longing for His coming? Call 
His name Jesus. If we inquire. What mean those 
rivers of sacrificial blood, those forty centuries of 
prophecy, of faith and of hope, of prayer and of 
song, of longing and of expectation? Again we may 
read: *'Call His name Jesus: for He shall save His 
people from their sins.'' (Matt. 1:21-25; Phil. 
2 : 5-11). 



56 KORKGLBAMS IN NATURE 

III. His Introduction. — True to the voice of 
God in nature, and in the longings of the human 
heart, and in the breathings of the Holy Spirit in 
the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth came as the per- 
sonal expression and pledge of Jehovah's purpose to 
redeem. This was no ordinary event, and hence 
we very naturally look for an introduction worthy 
His rank and mission. The beginning of each indi- 
vidual is an unsolvable mystery. But we may 
rationally conclude that our fellows began like our- 
selves. Now that the first pair of human beings 
began like we, no man of even a little power of dis- 
crimination will for a moment contend. Here, then, 
in the federal head of the physical race, we find one 
indisputable exception to the uniformity of natural 
lav/; and this fact prepares the way for the belief 
that there has been another in the ^'second Adam, 
the Lord from heaven.'' 

The prediction of such an unusual event by one 
who has, as we have seen, so specifically foretold of 
the same One so many other strange things (Isa. 
IvIII), all of which have been accurately fufilled, 
renders this alleged event (Isa. 7 :r^) at least very 
probable. The power, the wisdom, the mercy, the 
love of God was clothed in flesh, (i Tim. 3: 16). In 
the light of prophecy, how befitting His claims is 
the annunciation to the Virgin by the angel of the 
Lord! (Luke II) . And then, too, the glad tidings 
of great joy to all people at the birth of the Savior, 
and the angelic music on the hills of Judea, tell the 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 57 

same story. A multitude of the heavenly host, who 
at creation^s morn shouted for joy, and who had 
long been tracing the purposes of God in the crim- 
son stream (i Pet. i : 12), now sing in the language 
of earth to wondering shepherds the far sweeter 
strains of a new creation. 

As they peered through the veil of the future, and 
saw millions coming home, ''redeemed out of every 
nation, kindred, tribe and tongue," and heard them 
''singing the song of Moses and the Lamb,'' there 
floated out on the midnight stillness, "Glory to God 
in the highest.'' And again: Looking down upon 
our earth, beyond its scenes of carnage, into the 
resplendent glory of the Messiah's reign, when "the 
mountains," because of the reign of Christ in the 
soul, "shall break forth into singing, and all the 
little hills into clapping their hands; and when war- 
riors shall beat their swords into plowshares and 
their spears into pruninghooks ; and when nations 
shall learn war no more," they sang, "On earth 
peace, good will to men." 

Mark that peculiarly strange and very significant 
visit of the magi from the far East. (Matt. II). 
Behold, too, the divine providence over the Child, 
manifested in dreams and angel visitations, until He 
is safely housed in the obscure and despised Naza- 
reth! (Matt. 2 : 23). 

Thirty years of silence, broken only by a single 
incident, but that indicative of His divine mission, 
slowly pass away, and with them have gone the 
5 



58 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

aged Simeon, the honored Zacharias and Elizabeth, 
the prophetess Anna, and perhaps Joseph, too, leav- 
ing Mary to keep all these wonderful events in her 
own heart. (Luke 2 : 51). The scepter had indeed 
departed from Judah, the royal staff from between 
his feet (Gen. 49:10; John 18:31), and the dark 
cloud of oppression had once more settled down on 
the ancient people, leaving nothing to comfort them 
save God and prayer. 

But expectation^ begotten of the voice of God in 
nature and in the longings of the human heart, 
strengthened by the types and shadows of their 
sacred religion, and unmistakably declared by the 
Holy Spirit in the prophets (i Pet. i : 9-12), is soon 
to become a glad reality. 

"Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers; 
Prepare the way! A God, a God! appears; 
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply, 
The rocks proclaim the approaching Deity." 

''In those days came John the Baptist,'' himself a 
subject of prophecy (Isa. 40 : 3; Mai. 3:1; 4:5, 6), 
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, 
^yRepent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at handy 
No more popular theme was ever presented to a 
Jewish audience than the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand. Forty centuries had been getting ready an 
audience, and hence we are very naturally intro- 
duced to the next scene. Nothing, we venture, has 
ever occurred in the annals of this world to be com- 
pared with it, for we read: ''Then went out to hinj 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 59 

all Jerusalem, and all Judea^ and all the regions 
round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in the 
river of Jordan (Mark 1:5), confessing their sins.'' 
(Matt. III.) It is both interesting and apposite at 
this point to inquire into the weight of 



6o FOREGLBAMS IN NATURE 



IV. 

JOHN'S TESTIMONY TO THE CLAIMS OF 
JESUS. 

1 . In the first place, John was a subject of prophe- 
cy. As such, he came at the right time (Gen. 49: 
10; MaL 3:1), at the right place (Isa. 40: 3), and 
preached the right discourse (Mai. 4:5, 6). No 
other man ever met these conditions. Besides, he 
made the direct claim for himself, '^I am the voice 
crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord.'' 

2. In the second place, we shall notice the peo- 
ple's estimate of John. We read, ^^All held John 
as a prophet." (Matt. 21:26). They went even 
farther and "mused in their hearts of him whether 
he were the Christ." (Luke 3:15)- Their concep- 
tion of John is forcibly brought out by Jesus in His 
query to the multitudes, "What went ye out into the 
wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the 
wind?" A man to be swayed by popular opinion! 
"But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in 
soft raiment?" — a king! Surely, you would not go 
into the wilderness to see a king! "But what went 
ye out to see? A prophet? Yea. But I say unto 
you more than a prophet." (Matt. 11:7-15; 21:23- 
27; Luke 7:28-30), 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 6l 

3. We next notice the rulers' estimate of John. 
This may be learned from two sources: From the 
fact of their sending a deputation to inquire, ''Who 
art thou?" But especially from the forms their 
query assumes: (a) ''Art thou the Christ?" (b) 
"Art thou Elias?" To this he answered, I am not 
the Elijah you have taught should come. ( i Kings 
18:21-46). But he was the Elijah that should come. 
(Matt. 16:10). (c) "Art thou that prophet?" (Dent. 
18:15-18). A negative answer being given, they next 
inquired, "What sayest thou of thyself? that we may 
give an answer to them that sent us." The answer 
being given in the language of prophecy (Isa. 40:3), 
they present their final query, (d) "Why baptizest 
thou, then, if thou be not the Christ, nor Elias, 
neither that prophet?" (John 1:19:27). 

No ordinary man ever called forth such queries 
from such a learned body of men! It is just as clear, 
too, that John was the originator ujtder God (John 
1:33) ^f "the baptism of repentance for the remis- 
sion of sins;" was the one who should, by his 
preaching, baptizing and teaching, prepare a people 
for the Lord; was the one through whose baptism 
the Christ should be manifested unto Israel. (John 

This estimate appears evident in the second place 
from the use Jesus made of that visit in an argument 
with the skeptical Jews in support of His claims. 
We give it in substance: If I alone testify of My- 
self, then My testimony ought not to be credited by 



62 FOREGLKAMS IN NATURE 

you. But another has testified of Me, and I know 
that ye ought to believe him; for so great was John, 
yourselves being judges, that ye sent unto him to in- 
quire if he were the Christ, or the Elijah whom ye 
have taught should come, or that prophet whom 
Moses said should come and who must be heard by 
you upon the^penalty of your being cut off from Israel. 
(Deut. 18:15-18; John 8:24). John testified to the 
truth. He said. Nay, I am not the Christ. I am 
not Elijah: neither am I that prophet. But, said he, 
I am the voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord. He made the direct claim also 
of being sent of God to baptize in water (John i: 
33), and stated the great purpose of his baptizing to 
be that the Christ should be manifested unto Israel. 
(John 1:31). ''This is he of whom it is written. Be- 
hold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the 
way before Me. ' ' The reader will note that the Christ 
should be manifested unto Israel in baptism at the 
hands of John. 

4. The final testimony of John to the claims of Je- 
sus, Having shown our witness to be a subject of 
prophecy; having shown him to be, in the estimation 
of the people, a prophet; having shown his remark- 
able influence in reforming Israel; and, finally, that 
the rulers themselves had formed such an exalted 
opinion of him that they sent a deputation to in- 
quire if he were the Christ — we shall let John testify 
in the case. 

Jesus and John were baptizing, the one in Judea 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 63 

and the other in ^non, near to Salim, and the peo- 
ple came and were baptized of them. (John 3:22; 4: 
1-2). The proximity of the two great teachers fur- 
nished, no doubt, the occasion for a dispute between 
a Jew and some of John's disciples concerning the 
relative merits of the two baptisms. The Jew ar- 
gued the superiority of the claims of Jesus over that 
of John, saying. All men are cofning to Jesus. This 
filled John's disciples with jealousy on account of 
their master's waning influence, and hence they 
came to him in their defeat. 

How noble the spirit and the reply of John! We 
give it in substance: No man can receive lasting 
honor except it be given him from heaven. Ye 
yourselves will bear me witness that I said, I am not 
the Christ. I plainly declared that I am only sent 
before Him, and am not worthy even to loosen the 
sandals from His feet. I am but the voice ^ crying, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord! True, I bap- 
tize in water as commanded of God (John i : 33; 
Acts 19 : 1-4), but He shall baptize you in the Holy 
Spirit. Before His manifestation, / knew Him not 
(lyuke I : 80; Matt. 11 : 27), but He that sent me to 
baptize^ the same gave me a sign of recognition, say- 
ing. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend- 
ing and remaining on Him, the same is He that 
baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. And I saw the prom- 
ised sign, and, lo, I heard a voice from heaven, say. 
This is my beloved Son. (Matt. 11 : 27). And 
then / bare record to you, my disciples, that this 



64 FOREGLKAMS IN NATURE 

fesus is the Son of God, And again, you will re- 
member that I pointed to Him as the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sin of the world, I am truly 
glad that I have not been mistaken, for the King 
has indeed come. He is the Bridegroom and I am 
His friend. This, my joy, therefore, is full in that I 
hear His voice in your very favorable report of Him. 
He must increase^ as the rising sun, but / must de- 
crease,, as the waning moon. He is from above,, and 
is therefore above all earthly teachers. (John 3 : 22- 

3^)- 

5. As a fitting close to John's testimony, we 

give that of his disciples. After John's death, 
''Jesus came into the place where John at first bap- 
tized." This afforded John's disciples an opportu- 
nity for seeing Christ and of testing the statements 
of John concerning the Christ. ''Many resorted to 
Him and said, John did no miracle, but all things 
fohn spake of this man are true. And many believed 
on Him there." The prophetic character of John 
is here plainly declared; the miraculous power of 
Jesus is clearly implied; and that Jesus is the Christ 
is fully conceded by the "many who believed on 
Him there." 



OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 65 

THE FATHER'S TESTIMONY CONCERNING 

JESUS. 

''The Father Himself," said Jesus, ''hath borne 
witness of me." (John V). "No man knew the 
Son but the Father," and hence the Father 
alone could reveal the Son. (Matt. 11:27). ]^^^ 
did not know Him prior to that revelation. There 
could have been no collusion between John and the 
Christ. We have no account that John ever attended 
the great festivals of the Jews, or had ever met 
Christ in person prior to the baptism. We have 
good grounds for believing that he did neither. "He 
was in the deserts till the day of his showing forth 
unto Israel." (Luke i : 80). 

We have already presented, so to speak, one part 
of the colossal base of God's mountain-range of tes- 
timony to the claims of Jesus. We now invite atten- 
tion to a few occasions where this testimony, like 
mountain-peaks, becomes especially prominent, as 
at His baptism; at the transfiguration; at the cruci- 
fixion; at the ascension; and at the coronation, as 
evidenced in the sending of the Holy Spirit on the 
first Pentecost after His death. We need to refer 
but briefly to some of these. We begin with His 
baptism, in which the Christ, as revealed to John, 
should be manifested unto Israel. (John i : 31). 



66 FOREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

Days, weeks and months had passed away since 
the voice in the wilderness began to call men to re- 
pentance, and the ministry of John was rapidly 
drawing to a close. Daily the forerunner had pro- 
claimed to an expectant people, ''The kingdom of 
heaven is at hand.'' He had even declared that the 
King was already standing in their midst, and would 
soon be manifested unto them. But as the days 
slowly passed away, and no king came, how anx- 
iously must the prophet have awaited His coming! 
With what restless expectancy and anxiety must the 
people have assembled daily in hope of seeing Him 
''who should deliver them from all their enemies!" 
(Ivuke H). 

But in due time (lyuke 3:21) Jesus laid aside for- 
ever His carpenter tools, and walked sixty-five 
miles, from Galilee to Jordan, unto John to be bap- 
tized of him in order to be manifested unto Israel. 
John knew Him not, he tells us, and yet there must 
have been something to suggest the greatness of 
Jesus to him. Possibly His innocent look and 
purity of heart. His holy purpose and heavenly 
mien, and the consciousness of His divine mission 
beaming from his His eyes, were sufficient. But, 
be that as it may, we read: "John forbade Him, 
saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and 
comest Thou to me?'' Jesus removes this objection, 
saying, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh 
us (you to baptize and I to be baptized) to fulfill all 
righteousness." God had commanded, and the 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 67 

spirit of obedience yielded submission; and in that 
submission to the divine will, the Christ was mani- 
fested unto Israel. "The heavens were opened unto 
Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like 
a dove and lighting upon Him, and, lo, a voice from 
heaven said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased.'' (Matt. HI). John evidently saw 
the open heavens and the descending Spirit, and 
also heard the voice. ^^I saw^"^^ said he, '^and bare 
record that this is the Son of Gody (John i : 34). 
The people present evidently saw and heard, for the 
Christ was to be manifested unto Israel in His bap- 
tism (John I :3i), and there is nothing to suggest 
that they could not have seen and heard this divine 
testimony. (Acts 10 : 37). Besides, Jesus alleges be- 
fore the skeptical Jews these veiy facts in support of 
His claims. He urges that their rejection of Him 
in the face of the testimony given is proof of their 
stubborn and reprobate wills. (John V). He dis- 
tinguishes the Father's testimony from that afforded 
by the "works which the Father had sent Him to 
finish," and from "the works He was then doing." 
He urges that the Father's testimony affords reason- 
able and sufficient grounds for belief in Him as the 
sent of the Father. But this testimony, to be in point, 
must have been public and addressed to them, or 
some of their number. This confines the testimony 
of the Father here referred to, to that given at His 
baptism. (Acts 10:37). 

Just here it may be asked. If the evidence was so 



68 FOREGtKAMS IN NAl'URK 

clear in Christ's favor, why did the Jews crucify 
Him? 

To this query we answer: The evidence was only 
partly presented before the deed was done. The 
best evidence was yet to be given. 

In the second place, they did it through igno- 
rance. (Acts 3 : 17). But their ignorance was no 
excuse for the deed .(John 15 : 22-^4). Their igno- 
rance grew out of their unwillingness to do God's 
will. (John 7:17). This placed them under the 
dominion of the flesh and fleshly ideas. These ideas 
forever oppose the spiritual. Let us now reason 
upon this important query for a brief space: 

Fundamental ideas control one's belief and con- 
duct. Such ideas, if false, yet believed to be true, 
exclude all opposing true ideas from the mind. But 
if these false and fundamental notions pertain to re- 
ligion, involving, as they do, the conscience and the 
eternal destiny of man, they war to the death every 
opposing fundamental idea. Opposing ideas can no 
more dwell in the same mind at the same time than 
can two solids occupy the same space at the same 
instant. 

Now the Jews, for the reasons above stated, held 
to certain false ^ but to them true and fundamental^ 
notions concerning religion, and especially of the 
Messiah's kingdom. Of these we mention the fol- 
lowing: 

I. The Messiah will be an earthly king, and 
will reign in Jerusalem. Read Luke 17 : 20; Matt. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 69 

16 : 16-23; Mark 9 : 10; Matt. 20 : 20-28; Acts i : 6. 

2. He will establish His kingdom by force. 
Read Matt. 11:2; John 6 : 15. 

3. All of Abraham's fleshly heirs, by virtue of 
their being such, shall be subjects of the Messiah's 
kingdom. Read Matt. 3:9; John 3 : 3-7. 

4. The Law of Moses shall be of perpetual obli- 
gation, and hence the law of the Messiah's kingdom. 
Read Matt. 26:61; John 9:28, 29; Matt. 27:40; 
Acts 6 : 13, 14. 

5. The Sabbath is of perpetual obligation, and 
must be observed as the rabbis have taught; and any 
departure from that teaching must be considered as 
heresy and subjecting the offender to the penalty of 
death. Read John 9 : 16; 5 : 16. Contrast with 
2 Cor. 3:6-11. 

6. It is positively sinful for one to associate with 
publicans and sinners. This and such like teaching, 
all of which opposed and excluded from their minds 
the true conception of Christ and His kingdom, 
tended toward His death. So much for ignorance 
and prejudice. 

But when Jesus began to rebuke their leaders for 
their hypocrisy; and when He, by parable and com- 
parison, showed their rebellion against God; and 
when the common people, on account of His mira- 
cles and teachings, began to say, ''We never saw it 
on this fashion," ''Never man spake like this 
man;" but especially when the multitudes turned 
from the rabbis unto Christ, — the envy of the 



70 I^ORKGI^EAMS IN NATURE 

leaders knew no bounds, and they decided that, in 
order ^^to save their place and nation," the Naza- 
rene must die. They closed their eyes to the light 
lest they should see. They stopped their ears lest 
they should hear the truth. And then, in their 
deafness and blindness and ignorance, they boldly 
affirmed — We see! we know! 

On this very occasion tJtey refused to see the power 
of God manifested in Christ's healing the impotent 
man at the pool, ^'because He had done these things 
on the Sabbath day." How very appropriately 
Jesus could say to such religious skeptics and bigots, 
'^The Father Himself hath borne witness of me" in 
the opened heavens, and in the descending Spirit, 
and in the audible confession from heaven: ^^but ye 
never heard His voice at any time, nor saw His 
shape! And ye have not His love abiding in you; 
for whom He hath sent," clothed with divine power 
in the very midst of you, ^'Him ye believe not." If 
God were now to speak, some people would say, ''It 
thundered." But of this witness later. Read Matt. 
^3-13-33; 21:28-46; Ivuke 18:9-14; John 11:47- 
53; 12:19. 



OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 7 1 

VI. 

THE TESTIMONY OF HIS WORKS. 

^ ^The works which the Father hath sent me to finish 
(Luke 4 : 18-23), the same works that I do bear 
witness of me that the Father hath sent me." 
(John V). ft will be seen that the argument here 
naturally divides into two parts: First ^ the general 
trend of events looking to the completion of redemp- 
tion; second^ the ever-present works of Jesus in the 
living witnesses and their influence upon contempo- 
raries. In the language of A. Campbell: 

"Having thus introduced Him with these high 
commendations, with these credentials from earth 
and heaven, His own deeds are permitted to speak 
for Him. All nature, then, owns Him universal 
Lord. His hand is never stretched forth but its be- 
nign and beneficent power is displayed and felt. 
His lips are ever teeming with grace and truth. Not 
only does the race of living men amongst whom He 
is reckoned feel and attest His omnipotence; not 
only do the air, the earth and the sea lay their 
respective tributes at His feet: but even the dead 
and the spirits of the dead of times past and present, 
both good and evil, come and own Him Lord of all. 
Strange assemblage of evidence! Unparalleled con- 
currence of things human and divine, of things ani- 
inate and inanimate, of things above and things be- 



7 a I^ORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

neathjof all ranks and orders of intelligences, both 
good and evil, of the whole universe in confirmation 
of His pretensions!'' 

We are concerned at present only with the latter 
part of the argument. To the skeptical Jew, stand- 
ing in the very presence of divine power, manifested 
in the healing of the impotent man, Jesus says, 
''''The same works that I do bear witness of me." In 
answer to the sad query of the imprisoned forerun- 
ner, Jesus replies, ''Go and show John again those 
things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive 
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." 
And as a word of warning and consolation. He adds, 
''Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in 
me." (Matt, ii 15; Luke 7 : 21). As age upon age 
shall roll on, till time shall be no more, and men 
demand proof of His divine mission, Jesus answers 
in the living present, ''''The same works that I do 
bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me." 
'Twill be the same old, but the ever new, story, 
"Call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people 
from their sins." Men and women redeemed, saved 
from their sins, are the living, abiding, the ever- 
present and unimpeachable witnesses that 

"THE FATHER SENT HIS SON INTO THE 
WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS," AS WELL AS 
TO HEAL MEN OF THEIR PHYSICAL DIS- 
EASES. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 73 

I. THE GENERAL CLAIMS. 

Jesus claims to have done among the people works 
that none other had ever done. (John 15 : 22-24). 

Mattheiv testifies: ''He went abont teaching and 
preaching, and healing all manner of sicknesses and 
diseases among the people.'' (Matt. 9 : 35). 

Nicodemus^ a ruler of the Jews, said: ''Rabbi, we 
know that thou art a teacher come from God: for 
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except 
God be with him." (John 3:2). 

John the apostle testifies: "Many other signs 
truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples 
which are not written in this book: but these are 
written that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ; and that believing, ye might have life 
through His name." (John 20 : 30, 31). 

Peter^ in his address before a Roman official and 
his household, testifies: "Ye know how God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and 
with power: who went about doing good and healing 
all that were oppressed with the devil: for God was 
with Him." (Acts 10 : 36-39). 

Paul^ in his defense before King Agrippa, testifies 
concerning the ground of Israel's hope: "Why 
should it be thought a thing incredible with you 
that God should raise the dead?" Again: "I am 
not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the 
words of truth and soberness. For the king know- 
eth of these things, before whom I also speak freely: 



74 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

for I am persuaded that none of these things are 
hidden from him: for this thing,'' /. ^. , the resurrec- 
tion, '^was not done in a corner/' (Acts XXVI.) 

II. THE SPECIFIC CLAIMS. 

It is not necessary to make an extended list. A 
few must suffice, i. We begin with the healing of 
the paralytic at Capernaum, 

The difficulty in presenting the sick for healing; 
the presence of doctors of the law from every town 
in Galilee and from Jerusalem and Judea; and His 
claim to have forgiven the sins of the paralytic, 
which called forth the charge of blasphemy, and the 
testimony of the people on seeing the miracle — each 
and all conspire to make fraud impossible. 

In reply to the charge of blasphemy, Jesus showed 
that God would not empower a blasphemer to per- 
form miracles. Compare Mark 9:39; John 14:17; 
Acts 19:13-17. *^But," said He, ''that ye may 
know that the Son of man hath power on earth to 
forgive sins," and is therefore not a blasphemer, I 
here and now give you tangible, pertinent and con- 
clusive proof. ''I say to the sick of the palsy. 
Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house. And 
he arose and departed into his house.'' ''The mul- 
titude saw; and they marveled, and glorified God 
who had given such power unto men." 

This miracle was not done in a corner, nor in the 
dim light of a lamp, nor in the presence of a few 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 75 

friends only; but in the open sunlight of God, and in 
the presence of a host of competent witnesses, ene- 
mies as well as friends. His enemies were compelled 
to admit the miracle. By what power, then, was it 
wrought? The answer was. Either by the Spirit of 
God or by Satanic agency. If the former, then 
the kingdom of God had come; but if the latter, 
Jesus was an impostor and in league with Satan. 
Frorn their standpoint, Jesus could not be divine; 
hence, on a later occasion, they chose the latter 
alternative. Jesus reduced their claim to an absurd- 
ity by showing that a house, or a city, or a kingdom, 
divided against itself could not stand. If I cast 
out demons by Satanic agency, then Satan's king- 
dom is divided against itself and must fall. But 
again: No man can enter a strong man's house and 
spoil his goods unless he first bind the strong man. 
The fact, then, that I am destroying the power of 
Satan over those possessed of demons is proof that I 
am really binding the strong man and not in league 
with him. And again: If I, by Beelzebub, cast out 
demons, by whom do your children cast them out? 
Your defense of them will be mine own. 

Jesus now turns upon his enemies, so lost to all 
sense of honor and reverence for God as to attribute 
to Satanic agency the kind, compassionate and won- 
derful acts of the Holy Spirit, and charges them 
with blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, for which 
there is no forgiveness. (Matt. 9:1-8; Mark 2:1-12; 
Luke 5:17-26), 



76 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

II. Jesus the Light of the world. 

There were no asylums for the blind nor hospitals 
for the lame till Jesus came. The subject of this 
paragraph had been blind from birth, and, as was 
the custom of such, he frequented public places 
where he '^sat and begged" for alms. Jesus was in 
the temple teaching, and had made the remarkable 
statement. Before Abraham was I a?n, (John 8:58). 
The Jews sought to kill Him for blasphemy; but 
Jesus, going through the midst of them, passed out 
of the temple. And as he was passing by He saw 
this man and said, "As long as I am in the world T 
am the light of the world." Making some clay of 
spittle. He anointed the man's eyes with it and said, 
'^Go wash in the pool of Siloam." The man did so 
and came seeing. Imagine the joy of that first sight 
into the beauties of nature! 

We again note that the circumstances exclude 
fraud in this case. The neighbors, the parents and 
the man all testify to his blindness from birth. 
These now know that he has been made to see. The 
man, being brought to the Pharisees, related what 
he did at the command of Jesus, and that he came 
seeing. "Some of the Pharisees, admitting the 
miracle, said. This man is not of God, because He 
keepeth not the Sabbath; but others said. How can 
a man that is a sinner do such miracles!" 

We now are favored with an official investigation 
by "the Jews" — the experts. These began by deny- 
ing the fact of his previous blindness. They call 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 77 

the parents to testify. Now, reader, remember that 
the decree had already gone forth, if any did confess 
Jesus as the Christ he must be put out of the syna- 
gogue. (John 9:22). 

The parents are now before this authoritative 
body. This would naturally fill them with fear. 
Besides, the question was so put as to virtually deny 
their affirmation in advance. (9:19-21). But the 
answer was clear and decisive: ''We know that this 
is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what 
means he now sees, or who hath opened his eyes, we 
know not. He is of age. Ask him.'' 

The Jews then exhorted the man, ''Give God the 
glory; for we know that this man is a sinner." They 
had learned a lesson from the reply to their charge 
of blasphemy. In this case they could not deny the 
miracle, but with an air of piety they sought to rob 
Jesus of the honor. "Give God the glory; this man 
is a sinner.'' The man replies in part: "One thing 
I know, that, whereas / was blind^ now I see,^^ 
"Since the world began such a miracle has not 
been wrought upon one born blind." "If this man 
were not of God," continued the witness, "He could 
do nothing." "And they cast him out of the syna- 
gogue." (John IX). One sheep had dared to hear 
the True Shepherd's voice. The parable of the 
sheepfold grows out of this bit of history, and is in- 
tended to teach, among other things, that those self- 
constituted pastors who rejected the Good Shepherd 
were in fact but thieves and robbers, and the sheep 



78 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

would not hear them. The miracle and the teach- 
ing stand or fall together. 

III. Waiting for the Angel of the Pool, 

Within the sacred city, in the long ago, a crystal 
stream at times came gushing forth into the still wa- 
ters of a very beautiful pool. The comings of this 
stream set all the waters of the pool into motion. 

The people of that day believed that an angel at 
such times came down and troubled the waters, so 
that the first one to step into the pool after the mov- 
ing of the water was made whole and well. For this 
reason many people came to be healed. 

The good people of the city built around this pool 
five porches, in which the sick might remain while 
waiting for the angel to move the water. On one 
occasion a great multitude of helpless people — some 
blind, some halt, and others still with withered 
limbs — lay in these porches, waiting, watching and 
longing for the angel to come, each hoping to be the 
first to enter the pool. What a scene! Among that 
number was one who had long waited, only to see 
others more able than he step into the water before 
him. His hope for healing centered solely on the 
troubled waters, but he was unable to reach them in 
time. How sad his lot! Unable to enter the heal- 
ing waters and no kind friend to assist him! 

A stranger drew near. His pure blue eyes gave 
a look of tenderness as he gently inquired, ^^Wilt 
thou be made whole?'' ''Sir, I have no man when 
the water is troubled to put me into the pool, but 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 79 

while I am coming another steps down before me." 
With majestic mien and in words of power, the 
stranger again speaks, ^^Rise, take up thy bed and 
walk." Instantly the vital forces were at work and 
the man sprang to his feet. A stream of life poured 
through his once withered limbs. The stranger, un- 
observed, had quietly withdrawn. The pool was 
silent as the grave, but the man was made whole. 
With joyful heart he took up his bed and hastened 
home. But it was the Sabbath, and the Jews forbade 
him to carry his bed. The man justifies himself by 
quoting that greater yet unknown authority. Shortly 
after we find him in the temple. The stranger once 
more appears and said, ^'Behold, thou art made 
whole; sin no more lest a worse thing come unto 
thee." The man departed and told the Jews that it 
was Jesus which had made him whole. ^'The Jews 
then sought to slay Jesus, because he had done these 
things on the Sabbath day^ (John V.) 

Sin is the source of all disease, so that no better 
hygienic advice was ever given than that here 
pointed out. Sin no more. We may visit the pools 
and await the angels, may take nature's remedies as 
prescribed by learned physicians, but unless we heed 
the divine prescription, there is, there can be, for us, 
no such thing as health. Jesus saves his people from 
their sins. 

IV. The Resurrection of Lazarus, 

This touching scene occurred at Bethany, nigh 
unto Jerusalem. An only brother and two devoted 



8o FORKGI.KAMS IN NATURE 

sisters had been separated by death. Jesus, on ac- 
count of persecution, was far away (John 19:40-42), 
but had been called in these sad yet hopeful words, 
''He whom thou lovest is sick." The Master re- 
plies, ''This sickness is not unto death, but for the 
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified 
thereby." 

After two days Lazarus fell asleep, and Jesus said: 
"Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, and I go to wake him 
out of sleep." His disciples reply in substance: 
Ivord, if he sleeps, he shall recover. But Lazarus 
was asleep in death. (John 11 : 13, 14). 

Many Jews came from Jerusalem to comfort the 
bereaved sisters. As Jesus approached Bethany, 
Martha went out to meet Him, and broke the sad 
news, saying, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my 
brother had not died." In answer to her yearning 
faith (v. 22), Jesus replied: "Thy brother shall 
rise again." Her seeming doubt of a present resur- 
rection called forth these immortal words: ^^I am 
the resurrection and the life,^^ "Go call thy sister." 
Mary came forth to meet the Master, being followed 
by the Jews, who comforted her. The same sad 
words, "Lord, if thou hadst been here," fell from 
her lips. "Jesus wept." 

Coming to the grave He thanked the Father for 
having heard Him. "I knew," said He, "that 
thou hearest me always: but because of the people 
that stand by I said it, that they may believe that 
Thou hast sent Me. ' ' And when He had thus spoken, 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 8 1 

He cried in a loud voice, ^^Lasarus^ come forth! 
And he that was dead came forth bound hand and 
foot with grave clothes.'' Jesus said unto them, 
'^lyoose him and let him go.'' (John 5 : 25-29). In 
the proper place, we shall show that expectation did 
not create a single vision, and hence that the power 
of dominant ideas did not originate a single grand 
fact of the Gospel. The facts were opposed to all 
the dreams and the hopes and the visions of Israel 
and of the apostles. 

I.AZARUS AS A WITNESS. 

Many of the Jews which had seen the things 
which Jesus did, believed on Him. (v. 45). Some 
went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had 
done. The chief priests and the Pharisees called a 
council to determine what course to pursue in order 
to counteract His influence. ''What do we? for this 
man doeth many miracles." Then, through igno- 
rance of His real character and of the nature of His 
kingdom, they falsely assumed Him to be a mover 
of sedition against the Romans, and hence con- 
cluded, ''If we let Him thus alone, all men will be- 
lieve on Him, and the Romans," being more power- 
ful than we, "shall come and take away our place 
and nation. ' ' To save their place and nation was 
the burden of this council. Read Deut: 18 : 15-18. 
Prompt action must be taken, or all would be lost, 
lyuke 19 : 41-44. 



82 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

THE ruler's purpose. 

Caiaphas, the high priest, gave the determining 
speech on that occasion: ^'Ye know nothing at all, 
nor consider that it is expedient for ns that one man 
should die for the people, and that the whole nation 
perish not.'' ''From that day forth they took coun- 
sel to put Him to death." (John 11:49-53). 

NEW EVIDENCE. 

A few days later a supper was given at Bethany 
in honor of Jesus, and many Jews came not only for 
Jesus' sake, but that they might see lyazarus also. 
The result was, ''many Jews went away and be- 
lieved on Jesus." The chief priests then consulted 
to put Lazarus to death also. (John 12 : 10; 12 : i- 
8; Matt. 26 : 6-15; Mark 14 : 3-11 ). 

JESUS' POPUI.ARITY. 

On the next day (12:12) Jesus made His tri- 
umphal march into Jerusalem (Zech. 9:9). The 
eye-witnesses of the resurrection of Ivazarus had tes- 
tified to the fact (11 : 46), and those who saw Laza- 
rus at the supper had also testified, with the result 
that much people that were come to the feast, when 
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took 
branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet Him. 
(John 12 : 12, 13; Matt. 26 : 8, 9). "The Pharisees 
therefore said among themselves. Perceive ye how 
ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after 
Him!" (12:19). 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 83 

A little farther on we learn that ''among the chief 
rulers also many believed on Him, but because of 
the Pharisees they did not confess Him lest they 
should be put out of the synagogue." ( John 12 42, 
43; 19-38-4^; Acts 6:7). 

COUNCII. FOR EXECUTION. 

A council for the execution of plans was now 
held. (Matt. 26 : 3-5). He must be taken by sub- 
tilty lest there should be an uprising of the people 
in His favor. The rulers now issue imperative 
orders that if any man knew where He were of 
nights, he must make it known. But all their plans 
failed till Judas, one of the twelve, during the Pass- 
over meal, and just preceding the institution of the 
Ivord's Supper, on receiving the sop (John 13:26), 
went immediately out into the night (13:30) to 
accept their offer of thirty pieces of silver made a 
few days previous, and to betray his Master with a 
kiss. (Matt. 26:14-16). 

THE ARREST AND TRIAL. 

The arrest was made in the night, and in the 
night they condemned the man of prayer as a blas- 
phemer. (Matt. 26:36-46; John 18:1-9). Early in 
the next morning the chief priests and elders took 
counsel how to put Him to death. (Matt. 27:1, 2), 
Pilate's consent must be had — their sentence must 
be ratified. The scepter had departed from Judah. 



84 I^ORKGtEAMS IN NAirURK 

(Gen. 49:10). Failing in this first move, they then 
allege Him to be a mover of sedition against the 
Romans — a rival of Caesar. But both Herod and 
Pontius Pilate declared Him innocent of the charge. 
The next move touched Pilate's throne. ^'If thou 
let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." 
Pilate now placed before them, according to custom, 
two prisoners — Jesus, and Barabbas, who was in 
fact a mover of sedition and a murderer. This 
would test their loyalty to Caesar and the sincerity of 
their charge. ^'Whom will ye that I release, Jesus 
or Barabbas?" They cried, '^Barabbas! Barabbas!" 
Defeated at this point, and knowing that for envy 
they had delivered Him, Pilate, in order to appeal 
to human sympathy and to gratify the envy of the 
rulers, scourged Jesus and led Him forth, saying, 
^'Behold the man!" (Isa. 52:14). Instantly with 
loud voices they cried, ^^Away with Him! Crucify 
Him ! " '' Why ? What evil has He done ? " '' Cru- 
cify Him! Crucify Him!" came back the answer. 
''Shall / crucify your King?^'^ ''We have no king 
but Caesar." How true! The centuries echo back 
their answer — no king but Caesar! Pilate saw that 
further effort was useless — that a tumult was gather- 
ing. He washed his hands before them, saying, "I 
am innocent of the blood of this just person." The 
answer came back, "His blood be upon us and our 
children." (Deut. 18:15-18). "Take j^ Him and 
crucify Him: for /find no fault in Him." Why did 
Pilate consent? 



OF RBDKMPTION IN CHRIST 85 

THE MOTIVES. 

On the part of the Jews His death was an expedi- 
ent to save their place and nation. On the part of 
Pilate it was an unpremeditated, almost necessary, 
choice between the shedding of the blood of many 
and that of one just man. Very probably Pilate saw 
his own throne tottering under him, as well he 
might, if he should refuse their demands. But his 
question will go down through the ages, ''What 
shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?" 
(Matt. 27:22). 

THE WORI.D REPRESENTED. 

Jew and Gentile met at the cross of Christ. The 
whole world was represented in that oflficiatory act. 
In a deeper sense they afterward should meet around 
the cross. In a deeper sense than Caiaphas foresaw, 
Jesus died not for that nation only, but for the whole 
world — • 'He tasted death for every man." He died for 
Barabbas; He died to save Pilate's throne; He died 
to save their place and nation. "He died, the just 
for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God." 
His death was in order to His resurrection as the 
federal head of the race. "He was delivered for our 
offenses, and rose for our justification." His resur- 
rection as our federal head insures, and hence justi- 
fies, our resurrection from the grave. 

"Jesus kiiew no sin: neither was guile found in 
His mouth." "Which of you convinceth Me of 



86 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

sin?" He did not die, then, because He had sinned. 

'^No man,'' said He, ''taketh my life from Me." 
^^I lay it down of myself," (Johnio:i8). This 
accords with His claim to have lived with the Fath- 
er before the world was (John i:i; Heb. 1:2-10); 
and with the wonderful facts of His life on earth. 
He must, therefore, have died willingly. 

But there must have been a purpose in His death. 
If Jesus be the express image of God's person; if His 
words be the form of God's thoughts; if His miracles 
be the manifestations of God's power, — then His 
tears are the revelations of God's pity; His prayer 
on the cross of God's willingness to forgive; and His 
suffering and death, of God's wonderful love and of the 
exceeding sinfulness of man. ^^ Jesus died for our 
sins, according to the Scriptures." The purpose of 
His death is surely not reached in the resurrection 
from the dead of both good and evil. Nay, we are 
pushed farther along in our investigation. It must 
have been to effect a great moral change in men and 
women — not merely during this short life, but one 
that entitles such to stand justified in the presence 
of God. '^He died for our sins, according to the 
Scriptures" — ^'to save us from our sins" — ^^that He 
might bring us unto God." ^^ Christ in you the 
hope of glory," says Paul. The death of Jesus is 
the basis of extended mercy through faith that works 
by love, effecting a change of purpose, followed 
by a change of life — the Christ in one hope of 
glory. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 87 

THE WORLD GUILTY. 

Every sin of which the race is now guilty uttered 
its voice in that cry, ^^ Crucify Him!'' The actors in 
that scene on Calvary not only represented the na- 
tions, but they represented the crimes of the world 
till the end of time. Disbelief would dethrone the 
Creator of ^the universe. Disbelief plunged the whole 
race into misery. Disbelief nailed the Son of God 
to the cross. And when we, through neglect, disbe- 
lief and disobedience to Christ, indorse that murder^ 
we become equally guilty with the murderers of Jesus. 
The question, ^^What shall I do then with Jesus, 
who is called Christ?" is intensely personal. Before 
the bar of eternal justice we cannot shift the guilt of 
murder to the Jews and Romans. Our sins helped 
to nail Him to the cross, and the only way to rid 
ourselves of guilt is to believe in Jesus Christ and 
obey Him. He demands a whole life in service to 
God. '^He that disbelieveth shall be condemned." 
(Mark 16:15, 16). Disbelief in Jesus nailed Him to 
the cross; disbelief in Him to-day indorses that act 
and takes its stand with Judas, Pontius Pilate and 
all who clamored, ^'His blood be upon us and our 
children." In rejecting Christ the Jews cut them- 
selves off from the true Israel of God. (Deut. 18: 
15-18). Their doctrine of expediency went down in 
70 iV. D. It is to be hoped that the reader, stand- 
ing in the light of nineteen centuries of Christ's rule, 
will not repeat their consummate folly. 



88 I?ORBGI.EAMS IN NATURES 

A SEEMING TRIUMPH. 

His enemies seemed to have triumphed. His 
friends, unsuspecting and outwitted, stood helpless 
in the presence of the mob and brutal Roman sol- 
diers. They did not forget Him. No one that had 
been the recipient of his favors ever cried for His 
blood. That enthusiastic multitude that escorted 
Him to the capital city did not furnish the material 
for the cruel mob. They were not fickle, as they 
have been represented. The arrest was made in the 
night. The trial before the Sanhedrin was held in 
the night. The sentence before the Roman court 
was passed early in the morning, before many 
friends of Jesus were aware of what was being done. 
It was the hangers-on of a corrupt court and a cor- 
rupt priesthood that clamored for His blood. Of the 
friends of Jesus, when it was too late to alter the de- 
cision, we read: ''There followed Him to the place of 
crucifixion a great multitude of people, and of wo- 
men, which also bewailed and lamented Him." (Luke 
23:27). Their only defense was the story of His life 
and tears of sympathy and anguish for His suffer- 
ing and death. 



OF RBDBMPTION IN CHRIST 89 

VII. 

TESTIMONY AT THE CRUCIFIXION. 

On one occasion the Jews said, ''Master, show us 
a sign from heaven.'' It was very appropriate that 
Jew and Gentile should have a sign from nature. 
This was given in the darkening of the sun at mid- 
day, and in the quaking of the earth, and in the 
rending of the rocks, during the suffering of Christ. 
At the time of His bitterest agony His enemies 
mocked and taunted Him, but His only answer was, 
''Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do." (Isa. 53:12). And when the centurion saw 
these things, and witnessed the wonderful behavior 
of Jesus on the cross toward His enemies, he ex- 
claimed, "Truly, this was the Son of God." A 
sublime faith now took possession of the thief on the 
cross, and he requested the dying Nazarene, "Lord, 
remember me when thou comest into Thy king- 
dom." A strange horror seized all who came to 
that sight, and "they smote their breasts and re- 
turned." (Luke 23:47-49.) They had their sign 
from heaven. But the chief actors must also have a 
sign. 

The hour of the evening sacrifice was at hand and 
the sufferings of Jesus were drawing to a close. Sud- 
denly the veil that separated the holy from the most 

holy place was rent in two from top to bottom, and 
6 



90 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

the priests could now look for the first time through 
that type of Christ's body into the most holy place, 
the type of heaven. (Heb. 9:24). 

The secret disciples of Jesus, Joseph and Nicode- 
mus, now came forth and begged of Pilate the body of 
Christ and gave it an honorable burial. (John 19: 
38-42). The hopes of His disciples were buried in 
that same tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. (Matt. 
16:22; Mark 9:9,10; lyuke 24:21; John 20:8,9; i 
Pet. 1:3-5). 

What a scene before us! Those eyes that ever 
beamed with innocence and purity; those lips that 
ever teemed with grace and truth; that voice that had 
calmed the angry sea and spoken peace to troubled 
souls; those hands and those feet that, till now, were 
busy in doing good; that life that by a touch or a 
word had healed the paralytic, opened eyes blind from 
birth, and called the dead back to their friends — now 
closed, sealed, silent, motionless and hushed in 
death! 

Was He an impostor? Or, will the Mighty 
Sleeper awake? 

The Supreme Court of the Universe is about to 
pass on this momentous question. The counsel for 
the enemies have taken every precaution to prevent 
deception. A great stone has been rolled to the door 
of the tomb and the Roman seal has been affixed. 
An armed guard is stationed to keep watch. The 
moon is at its full and Jerusalem filled with people 
come up to the Passover. All night long, by turns. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 9 1 

the soldiers pace to and fro in front of the tomb in 
order to keep a few timid, broken-hearted and de- 
spairing disciples from stealing the body and pro- 
claiming a resurrection! (Matt. 27:62-66). 

No fact of history can be better established than 
that the hopes of His apostles respecting the coming 
kingdom died with His death and were buried in the 
same grave with Him. The Christ of Peter's con- 
fession was not to die. (Matt. 16:13-22). Neither 
was He to rise from ^ the dead. ^'They wondered 
what the rising from the dead should mean.'' (Mark 
9: 9-10). When the women on the third day report- 
ed, ^'They have taken away the lyord out of the 
sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid 
Him," Peter and John ran to the sepulcher and ''saw 
and believed." Believed what? The answer is 
seen in the very next words: ^''for as yet they knew 
not the scripture that He should rise from the deady 
(John 20:1-9). When the Master, just before His 
betrayal, sought to comfort His disciples, they over- 
looked His death, and caught but vague glimpses of 
the heavenly mansions beyond. (John 14:1-3). 

His death put an end to all their fondest hopes. 
This is no speculation. They could not and did not 
see beyond. The resurrection was never anticipated 
by them. (Luke 24:21; i Pet. 1:3-5). 

But other worlds were looking on. The angels 
who sang at His birth, ''Glory to God in the high- 
est," were no doubt interested spectators. The 
underworld of darkness, some of whom had cried, 



gZ FORBGLBAMS IN NATURB 

**Let us alone. Art Thou come hither to torment us 
before the time?" were interested in the decision. 
(Matt. 8:28). The saints of all ages past awaited 
with intense anxiety the result of that decision. 
(Heb. 11:35; Phs. 3:10). The saints of all future 
ages must rest their hopes on that decision, (i Cor. 
15:14-19). I confess for myself an unusual interest 
in that issue. Jesus said, ''The gates of hades shall 
not prevail against it" — i. e., the rock of His Son- 
ship. (Rom. 1:4). If He rose, so will I; for He has 
said, ''Because I live, ye shall live also." But if He 
rose not, then death to me becomes an eternal sleep. 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 93 



VIII. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM PROPHECY. 

The argument from this source rests upon the 
veracity of God as tested by faith, obedience and 
experience for sixty centuries. Its strength lies not 
so much in the individual links, as in the combined 
strength of all. Each link in this chain strengthens 
all preceding links, and also supports all succeeding 
ones. In this chain we note especially the follow- 
ing, founded upon 

THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY. 

The Incarnation of Christ. Micah 5:2; Isa. 7:14. 

The Miracles of Christ. Isa. 29:18; 35:5-6; Matt. 
11:4-5. 

The Death of Christ. Isa. 53:8; Dan. 9:26. 

The Burial of Christ. Isa. 53:8-9. 

The Resurrection of Christ. Isa. 53:10; Psa. 16: 
10; Acts 1:3. 

The Ascension of Christ. Psa. 110:1-5; 68:18; 
Acts 1:9; Eph. 4:8-13. 

The Coronation of Christ. Psa. 24:3-10; Matt. 
19:27-28; 22:44; Psa. no. 

The Reign of Christ. Isa. 53-12; Psa. 45:1-7; 
Heb. 1:8-9. 



94 FOREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

The resurrection is but one important link in this 
chain. All up to this, as we have seen, came true; 
and this fact establishes the strong probability of 
the truth of the resurrection. Now the part follow- 
ing the resurrection necessarily rests upon the cer- 
tainty of that alleged event, and hence it follows 
that if a single alleged and essential fact, in this 
chain of prophecy concerning the Christ, be fulfilled 
in Jesus of Nazareth after His death^ the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus becomes a certainty. The fact upon 
which we shall place special emphasis is the reign 
of Christ. ^'I will divide Him a portion with the 
great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong." 
(Isa. 53:12). The reason given is: ''Because He 
hath poured out His soul unto death; and He was 
numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the 
sin of many; and made intercession for the trans- 
gressors." The subiect of this prophecy must rule 
after His death; must have died with crim^inals ; and 
must have interceded for His enemies, 'Jesus of Naz- 
areth fulfills this prophecy to the letter; no other has 
met, or can meet, the conditions here given. His 
rule is a fact of history and consciousness. 

Our line of proof does not require an extended 
argument, at this point, in favor of His resurrection. 
On the m^orn of the third day after His death^ the 
tomb was empty. The guard must give a legal rea- 
son for not holding that body in the tomb. (Acts 
12:1-19; 16:27). This they hastened to do. They 
related to the chief priests what they saw, felt and 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 95 

experienced. ''An angel,'' they said, ''came down 
from heaven and rolled away the stone and sat upon 
it. His countenance was like lightning, and his 
raiment as the snow. And for fear of him we did 
shake and became as dead men." (Matt. 28:2-4, 
11). This Roman guard first preached the Gospel 
of the resurrection. And their report is in harmony 
with the claim that angels do visit and minister to 
man; in harmony with the responsibility felt by the 
guard on that occasion, either to hold that body in 
the tomb, or to give a legal reason for not doing so; 
and in harmony with the subsequent action of the 
priests. 

The guard evidently told the truth, and the rulers 
perceived its weight. It was not expedient for them 
to hold a public investigation, nor to admit the fact 
outright. But by means of large money they per- 
suaded the soldiers to say: "His disciples came by 
night and stole Him away while we slept.'' Now 
this story virtually admits the fact of the resurrec- 
tion, while it served the double purpose of filling 
His disciples with fear, arising from the implied 
charge of their breaking the seal; and, when this 
failed to silence them, it served to weaken their tes- 
timony concerning the resurrection. The story 
would of course endanger the guard, but the chief 
priests pledged themselves to secure them in case 
the governor sought to punish them. It required 
"large money" to persuade them to take the risk. 
His disciples allege that He rose from the grave 



96 FOREGLBAMS IN NATURE 

according to prophecy (Isa. 53:10), and gave to 
them many infallible proofs of the fact. They saw 
Him frequently during the forty days after His res- 
urrection, at which times He spoke to them con- 
cerning the kingdom which He was about to estab- 
lish. (Acts 1:3). This allegation accords with 
His claims to have existed before the world was 
(John 17:5); with His own predictions (Matt. 26: 
32); with His claims to be the resurrection and the 
life (John 11:^5); and with His remarkable proph- 
ecy that ''the gates of hades shall not prevail against 
the rock,'' z, ^., of His Sonship, which truth would 
be demonstrated by His resurrection from the dead. 
(Rom. 1:4). This fact is further corroborated by 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 97 



IX. 

THE WORLD-WIDE COMMISSION. 

This was given after His death and before His 
ascension. Jesus here claims to have ''all authority 
in heaven and in earth." Upon this authority He 
commands His disciples, ''Go ye into all the world 
and preach the Gospel unto every creature. '^ He 
promises salvation to every obedient believer. He 
fixes the point of beginning, viz., at Jerusalem, 
He is careful to state that "repentance and remission 
of sins'' should be preached iit His name among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem, But in order to 
that proclamation, "the Christ must needs have suf- 
fered and have risen from the dead." He warns all 
who hear the Gospel preached in these words: "He 
that disbelieveth shall be condemned." In order to 
the execution of this commission, Jesus promises His 
continued presence with His apostles and proclaim- 
ers unto the end of the world. "I^o, I am with you 
alway, even to the end of the world." His apostles 
must be qualified to speak in every language of 
earth, and to confirm their teaching with miracles, 
wonders and signs. 

This is the most rem^arkable docum^ent the world 
ever saw. Remarkable in the Author's claim to 



98 FOREGLKAMS IN NAITURK 

have all authority in heaven and in earth; remark- 
able in His claim to a world-wide kingdom; remark- 
able in the means to be employed in establishing 
His kingdom; remarkable in the Author's pledge to 
be with the proclaimers of His Gospel to the end of 
time; remarkable in the promise of salvation to 
every one that believes and submits to His authority; 
remarkable in the warning, ''He that disbelieveth 
shall be condemned;'' and remarkable, most of all, 
from the fact that Jesus is making all these claims 
good. 

If Jesus did not rise from the dead^ this commis- 
sion is wholly without foundation, and is the most 
unreasonable, unaccountable and blasphemous docu- 
ment in the world. No enemy of Christ could pos- 
sibly be its author. The apostles of Christ could 
not have originated this commission, for it is very 
evident that they never, prior to His death, con- 
ceived of a spiritual, much less a world-wide, king- 
dom. See Matt. 18:1-6; Luke 9:46-48; Matt. 2o:ao- 
28; Ivuke 22:24-30; John 13:4-17. 

In the first place, they did not believe that He 
would die. (Matt. 16:16-22). As a result of this, 
they certainly did not believe that He would rise. 
(Mark 9:9, 10; John 20:8, 9; i Pet. 1:3-5). And as 
a result of this unbelief they did not and could not 
believe that He would found His kingdom upon His 
death and His resurrection. (lyuke 24:21). But 
the commission itself makes the death and the res- 
urrection of Christ a prior necessity to the proclama- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 99 

tion of the gospel. (Luke 24:46-47). 

No sane man would assume such a momentous fact 
as the resurrection of Christ as the basis of a world- 
wide proclamation; the proclamation could have no 
weight whatever. It must be evident, also, that the 
apostles of Christ, with the fact of the resurrection 
clearly authenticated, could not, unaided, have used 
that fact in establishing a world-wide kingdom. 
It would have been wholly beyond their power and 
ken. Jesus alone is the author of that commission. 
It could have no meaning whatever to His disciples 
prior to His resurrection. And after His resurrec- 
tion and prior to His ascension it meant nothing 
more than a revival of dead hopes — an earthly king- 
dom for Israel. (Acts 1:6). 

But if Jesus rose from the dead and is the author 
of that commission^ as we have seen, then it is not 
only a reasonable document, but it is the most mo- 
mentous proclamation ever addressed to our race. 
We simply state that Jesus is making good every 
claim to authority and every promise and warning 
contained in the commission. Read Matt. 28:18-20, 
Mark 16:15-20; Luke 24:46-47. 

' ' Tarry ye at Jerusalem U7itil ye be endued with 
power Jrom 07i high,^^ 

On the night of the betrayal, when all the fondest 
hopes of His disciples were fading away, and pro- 
found sorrow had filled their hearts, Jesus tenderly 
and lovingly opened to their view a momentary vis- 
ion of the heavenly mansions, and added, '^I go to 

LgfC 



100 FORKGLKAMS IN NATURE 

prepare a place for you." They could not follow 
Him then, but He would come again and take them 
unto Himself. ''I will not leave you comfortless." 
'*I am going to My Father, but I will send you an- 
other Comforter whom the world cannot receive." 
"And when He is come He will convince the world 
of silt; because they believe not in Me; of \_My'\ 
righteousness^ because I go to the Father; of judg- 
ment^ because the prince of this world is judged." 
(John 16:7-11). The basis of condemnation is dis- 
belief in Christ, and the reason for condemnation is, 
''If ye believe not that I am He ye shall die in your 
sins." (John 8:24). The proof of Christ's right- 
eousness is seen in the fact that He ascended to the 
Father. And this fact was established by witnesses 
who saw Him ascend, and by the coming of the Holy 
Spirit. (Acts 2:1-33; i Cor. 12:3). The fact of a 
judgment is established by the resurrection of Christ 
as the federal Head of the race. His authority 
reaches the underworld. His coronation can mean 
nothing less than the judgment of the entire race be- 
fore the bar of eternal justice. (John 5:25-29; Acts 

17:30. 31)- 

In enabling them to proclaim His gospel effect- 
ively, the Comforter would do for them the follow- 
ing: 

1. ''He shall teach you all things," i. e., things 
not already taught and that are needful for you to 
know. (Acts 1:8; John 14:26). 

2. "He shall bring all things to your remem- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST Id 

brance,'^. e., ^'all things whatsoever I have said 
unto you.'' (John 14:26; Matt. 28:20). 

3. ^^He shall guide you into all truth/' i. e., 
into all truth yet to be revealed in establishing the 
kingdom. (John 16:13). 

4. '^He shall not speak of Himself, but whatso- 
ever He shall hear, that shall He speak." ^'He 
shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and 
shall show it unto you." 

5. '*He will show you things to come." (John 
16:13,14). 

6. '^ Under the most trying circumstances," 
^'Take no thought," said the Master, ''how or what 
ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same 
hour what ye shall speak." ''Settle it, therefore, in 
your hearts not to meditate beforehand what ye shall 
answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom 
which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain- 
say nor resist." The reason is given: "For it is not 
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which 
speaketh in you." 

But this Comforter should not come till Jesus had 
gone to the Father, till He should be glorified. 
Proof: John 16:7; 14:16; 15:26; 8:37-39. "If I go 
not away the Comforter will not come unto you." 
"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you an- 
other Comforter" — "whom the world cannot re- 
ceive" — "whom I will send from the Father." The 
coming of the Holy Spirit would be proof of Christ's 
presence with the Father, of His glorification, of 



I02 FOREGLBAMS IN NATURE 

His coronation, of His Lordship, (i Cor. 12:3). 

The necessity for such a Comforter and guide is 
seen in the following facts: His disciples had forgot- 
ten many things He had said unto them; many 
things remembered by them were not as yet under- 
stood by them; they could not yet preach unto every 
creature, because they were not yet empowered to 
speak the languages of earth; they had not at this 
time a just conception of Christ's kingdom; and, 
finally, they needed courage and power to proclaim 
the gospel in the face of all opposition. The gospel 
of the kijtgdofn is no longer the popular theme of John 
the Baptist^ '^The kingdom of heaven is at hand." 
Neither is it the very popular theme of the twelve or 
of the seventy under the first coTumission to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel^ of' ''the kingdom at hand, ' ' 
That was a very welcome message. The people 
were full of expectation concerning the near ap- 
proach of the kingdom. But Jesus indicated that 
there would be a radical change of attitude toward 
the kingdom under the world-wide commission. 
That proclamation would seek to establish, among 
other things, the following facts: 

1. That Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son 
of God. 

2. That the chief priests and rulers, the people 
consenting, had killed the Christ as an impostor. 

3. That the Christ had actually risen from the 
grave, demonstrating His Sonship and as certainly 
their guilt of murder. 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST IO3 

4. That He had been made both Lord and Christ. 

5. That He offered salvation to the Gentiles on 
precisely the same terms as to the Jews. 

6. That He had broken down the middle wall of 
partition between Jew and Gentile, viz., the law of 
Moses as a scheme of salvation. 

No man could preach a single fact here mentioned 
without arousing the bitterest opposition and perse- 
cution from the Jews; hence Jesus warned his disci- 
ples of this persecution, and sought to fortify them 
in making this proclamation, which would eventu- 
ally cost them their lives. (Matt. 10:27-32). 

No prophet of ancient times every conceived of 
the glory of this kingdom. Proof: i Pet. 1:10-12. 
The angels themselves desired to look into this sal- 
vation. John the Baptist caught but a faint glimpse 
of it. His conception had much of the earthly in 
it. And from what we have already stated, it is per- 
fectly clear that the apostles, who frequently dis- 
puted about who of them should be the greatest in 
the kingdom, had no just conception of it. Their 
conception of the kingdom at first had no suffering 
Christ; no Christ in the tomb; no risen Christ; and 
certainly no exalted Christ as Lord in it. As Jesus 
was about to ascend His apostles inquired, ^^Lord, 
wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to 
Israel?'' The old false notion of an earthly king- 
dom here once more comes boldly into view. The 
notion of earthly honors is beginning to appear, and 
the question, '^Who is the greatest in the kingdom 



I04 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

of heaven?" is once more up for settlement. How 
hard their false notion of the kingdom dies! But 
die it must in order that the true notion may be born. 
Jesus answers: '^It is not for you to know the times 
nor the seasons which the Father hath put in His 
own power. But ye shall receive power," i. e., to 
establish My kingdom, '^ after that the Holy Spirit 
is come upon you." And when He had spoken 
these things He lifted up His hands and was blessing 
them; '^and as they beheld He was taken up, and a 
bright cloud received Him out of their sight." (Acts 
1:6-9; Luke 24:50, 51). That was the end of their 
old drea'^n. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 105 

X. 

LESSONS FROM THE ASCENSION. 

A new conception of Christ and His kingdom was 
born into the world on that day. It came when Jesus 
ascended and the angels declared, He is gone into 
heaven. The old false notion of an earthly king- 
dom, revived for a time by the resurrection, has died, 
never to live again. That new conception is here, 
and no man can account for its presence and hold 
upon man if he denies the fact here alleged. It was 
not in the possession of the ancient prophets, (i Pet. 
I : 12). It was not in the possession of Zacharias 
when he prophesied of the mission of John the Bap- 
tist. (Luke I : 67-80). The salvation here contem- 
plated belongs rather to time. It does not look be- 
yond the grave. John the Baptist did not conceive 
of a spiritual kingdom looking beyond the grave. 
His conception evidently belonged to the present. 
His last question to Christ certainly indicates this 
much. (Matt. 11 : 2-6). The conception of the apos- 
tles prior to this event may be read in their disputes 
concerning greatness in the kingdom; in their unbe- 
lief in His prediction of His death, and concerning 
His resurrection; and in their final question. Wilt 
thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 
(Acts 1:6). Jesus is no longer an earthly ruler. 
(John 18:36). No longer do the apostles dispute 
7 



Io6 FOREGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

over worldly honors in an earthly kingdom ! Every 
vestige of sorrow arising from thoughts of hopes 
blasted, disappears. (John 14 : 3.) Hope looks be- 
yond the things of time and sense; and visions of 
the heavenly mansions, and thoughts of *'the eternal 
inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and 
that fades not away, reserved in heaven" for the 
followers of Jesus, now fill their minds and hearts 
with inexpressible joy. The power of an endless 
life has taken hold of them. Jesus would come 
again to take them home. Marvelous events are 
just ahead. But enough has been disclosed to them 
by that scene near Bethany (Luke 24:51) to give 
birth to higher hopes and nobler longings, resulting 
in a grand prayer-meeting, ending with 

THE COMING OF THE POWER FROM ON HIGH, 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I07 

IV. 
FULFILLED PROPHECY. 

PART III. — THE REIGN OF CHRIST. 

We are now ready to trace the beginning of 
Christ's rule on earth. (Isa. 53: 12). The fact of 
His Lordship must be established. This fact could 
be known only by evidence from the eternal world. 
That evidence must be clear, tangible and con- 
clusive — must reach consciousness itself. The evi- 
dence is recorded in Acts II. It is found in the 
''sound from heaven as of 3. rushing mighty wind," 
which sound filled all the house where the apostles 
were sitting; in the cloven tongues like as (^/^ fire 
sitting upon the heads of the apostles; in the speak- 
ing by the apostles so as to be understood in the 
native tongues of Jews born in at least seventeen 
different countries; and in the explanation of the 
chief speaker as to the source of the wonderful 
power by which they spoke. This evidence was 
corroborated by many signs and wonders and mir- 
acles wrought by the apostles in the name of Christ. 

A. wonderful scene is before the people! Twelve 
men ''with tongues like as of fire upon their heads" 
were addressing devout Jews from every nation 
under heaven (2:9-11), so that each auditor heard 
them in his own tongue wherein he was born I 



I08 KORKGLEAMS IN NATURE 

(v. 8). The fact was evident. As each interro- 
gated the other in the common language and real- 
ized what was being done, the wonder grew. The 
question was upon every lip, ^'How hear we every 
man in our own tongue wherein he was bornf^ (Acts 
2: 8, 12; I Cor. 14: 21, 22; Isa. 28: 11, 12). 

Let us now reason together concerning the cer- 
tainity of this event, and concerning its necessity in 
order to Christ's rule over men. 

The coming of the Spirit is a fact of prophecy. 
(Joel 2: 28-32). That some one should ascend on 
high and receive gifts for men is also a fact of 
prophecy. (Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:7). The Holy 
Spirit was not given during the personal ministry of 
Christ or before. (John 7:39; 16:7). The Spirit, 
when He came, should convince the world of 
Christ's righteousness: because that coming would 
be proof that Christ had gone to the Father (John 
16: 10); and the Father would receive only righteous 
ones into His presence. The resurrection demon- 
strated His Sonship (Rom. 1:3): for an impostor 
could not raise himself, and God would not raise 
an impostor. But Jesus claimed to be the Son of 
God. And finally the coming of the Spirit would 
demonstrate Jesus to be Lord as well as the Christ. 
(John 16: 14; I Cor. 12; 3). 

Some One should die, be buried, should prolong 
His days and become a great ruler in the earth. 
(Isa. lyHI). But that a dead man should establish 
and maintain such rule over millions of the wisest 



Ol^ RKDEMP'riON IN CHRIST 10^ 

and the purest and the noblest of earth would be 
the miracle of all ages!! Now that Jesus of Naza- 
reth did^ after His death and upon His love mani- 
fested in His death, establish and does now main- 
tain such rule, is a fact of history, of observation 
and of consciousness. The skeptic may rise and 
explain. 

Jesus began His rule as Lord^ and not merely as a 
teacher of ethics. His rule over men could not be- 
gin before the fact of His L<ordship was established 
among men. One fact will make this evident. 
Fifty days before, the Jews had crucified Him as a 
Sabbath-breaker and a blasphemer. These murder- 
ers would not accept His moral teachings, many of 
which diametrically opposed their own, without 
overwhelming proof of His authority. It is evident 
that nothing less than evidence from the throne of 
the universe could effectually authenticate the essen- 
tial fact in the proof; and hence Paul says, '*No man 
can say that Jesus is I^ord but by the Holy Spirit." 
This is, beyond doubt, the import of this passage. 
But that we are right in making the proof of His 
lyordship the basis of His rule, the necessary ante- 
cedent of His rule over men, may be tested by every 
individual. No man who denies that fact will submit 
to all the obligations im^posed upon him by the 
Master, 

The Pentecostans must have been absolutely cer- 
tain of some momentous fact not within the power of 
man to do, and which finds its explanation exclu- 



no FOREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

sively and adequately in the fact of Christ's lyord- 
ship before they would acknowledge His rightful 
authority over them. The presence of a divine 
power was established beyond a doubt in ''the sound 
from heaven/' and in ''the tongues like as of fire;" 
but especially in the speaking of the apostles so that 
devout Jews from all the surrounding nations each 
heard them in his own tongue wherein he was born. 
We read that "all were amazed and were in doubt, 
saying one to another, What meaneth this?" But 
"Others," not knowing the languages spoken, and 
hence not knowing directly the fact of their being 
spoken, "mocking said. These men are full of new 
wine." Some modern writers, by taking lessons 
from these original fun-makers, have resolved the 
gift of tongues into a sort of spiritual drunkenness — 
"ecstatic exclamations of emotion." Peter's expla- 
nation of this wonderful phenomenon of conscious- 
ness completes the proof of the Lordship of Jesus. 
This proof accounts for the beginning of Christ's rule 
over three thousand who but fifty days previous said, 
"His blood be upon us and our children." The 
church of Jesus Christ did not take its origin in 
ethics. Its foundation rests upon the facts of His 
death for our sins according to the Scriptures; of His 
burial and resurrection according to the Scriptures; 
of His ascension and coronation according to the 
Scriptures; of His I^ordship as evidenced by the bap- 
tism in the Holy Spirit. This latter fact, through 
the gift of tongues, addressed itself to the very con- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 111 

sciousness of every competent auditor on that occa- 
sion. It addressed eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses. 
It did this so as to remove every reasonable doubt as 
to the Lordship of Jesus from the minds of the jury. 
Some who profess to know what God can and can 
not do tell us that such an event is '4mpossible;'' 
and professing to know the mind of the Lord, de- 
clare that such an event is very ''improbable;'^ and 
upon these verities of Rationalism they tell us the 
alleged event is necessarily ''false.'' We have 
touched upon this doctrine of impossibility in the 
preceding pages. We have also shown, we think, 
that such an event, in the light of nature's teach- 
ings, and of the types and shadows of the ancient 
religion, and of the prophecies of the Old Testa- 
ment, and of the clearer predictions by Christ Him- 
self, and in the light of the necessity for such proof- — 
is very probable. But if this event did not take 
place, then the skeptic is brought face to face with 
another fact which no sane man dare dispute, and 
which is far more marvelous, viz., that a dead man 
has become the greatest ruler of earth ! If weak thy 
faith, why choose the harder side? 



il^ J^OHEGtEAMS IN NATtJRfi 

II. 

PETER'S ARGUMENT IN THE CASE. 

It is a difficult matter to get a jury to convict one 
of having willfully, maliciously and premeditatedly 
and with malice aforethought murdered his fellow- 
man; but the evidence must be unusually clear and 
conclusive to cause a jury to convict of murder in the 
first degree when they themselves are the accused. 
It was just such a jury to whom Peter made his first 
great speech. The legal profession ought to be in- 
terested in that address. Not one of them, we pre- 
sume, ever made a plea under such circumstances. 
This speech is found in Acts II. 

The jury stood in the presence of an inexplicable 
mystery, as already stated. In their amazement they 
inquire. What meaneth this? Peter arose with the 
eleven and began his memorable address: *^Ye men 
of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, hearken 
unto my words." '^This is that which was spoken 
by the Prophet Joel" (2:38-32), the closing words 
of which read, ''Whosoever shall call upon the name 
of the Lord shall be saved." 

I. THE ACCUSATION. 

1. Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God 
among you. 

2. That approval was manifest to you by mira- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHI^IST 113 

cles and wonders and signs which God did by Him 
in the midst of you. 

3. This fact ye yourselves also know to be true. 

4. Now, this Jesus was delivered, not by superior 
force and cunning, as ye supposed, but by the deter- 
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God.'' (Psa. 41: 
9, 10). 

5. Him ye have taken, and with wicked hands 
ye have crucified and slain. 

II. CHRIST'S VINDICATION. 

6. ^'But God hath raised Him up: because it was 
not possible that He should be held in the grave." 
Not possible because during His life He showed His 
power over death. Not possible, because He volun- 
tarily died for man with the avowed purpose of ris- 
ing from the dead. Not possible, because David 
declared the Christ should rise. (Psa. 16: 8-1 1). 
David did not refer to himself: ''for he is both dead 
and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this 
day." ''But David was a prophet; and, knowing 
that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the 
fruit of his loins according to the flesh. He would 
raise up the Christ to sit on His throne, he^ foresee- 
ing this, spake of the resurrection of the Christy that 
His soul was not left in Hades ^ neither did His flesh 
see corruption." The Christ, then, should rise. 

7. But this same Jesus whom ye crucified hath 
God raised up: of which fact we all are witnesses." 
The reader will note the number of witnesses; the 



114 FORKGLKAMS IN NATURE 

attendant phenomena, especially the gift of tongues, 
and their direct accusation and testimony in the face 
of danger. He will then be prepared for the next 
allegation. 

8. '^Therefore being exalted to the right hand of 
God and having received of the Father the promise 
of the Holy Spirit, '^ ^. ^., the gifts for men (Psa. 
68: 18)5 '^He hath,'' according to His promise unto 
us (John 16), ''shed forth this which ye now see 
and hear." 

III. CHRIST AS I.ORD. 

Some one should ascend on high and receive gifts 
for men. But this cannot refer to David: ''for 
David is not ascended into the heavens." Further- 
more David himself said, "The Lord said unto my 
lyord, Sit Thou on my right hand until I make Thy 
foes Thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of 
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that 
same Jesus whom ye crucified both I^ord and 
Christ." 

In substance: Ye murdered the Christ: but God 
hath raised Him up. Ye crucified Him as a blas- 
phemer: but God hath received Him to Himself. 
Ye said. We have no king but Caesar: but God says, 
"Rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies" — "until 
I make Thy foes Thy footstool." By this time the 
jury reached their decision: "God hath made that 
same Jesus whom we crucified both lyord and 
Christ." 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST II5 

Pierced to their hearts for what they had done and 
in view of a judgment, they cried out, '^Men and 
brethren, what shall we do?" 

Jesus had given the keys of the kingdom to Peter 
(Matt. 16: 16-19) and had further declared that 
''repentance and remission of sins should be preached 
in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusa- 
lem." (lyuke 24: 46, 47). We, then, have the right 
man preaching; we have him at the place of the be- 
ginning; we have him endued with power from on 
high; and have him answering a very important 
question, the question, ''Men and brethren, what 
shall we do?" This is the way the chosen apostle 
used the keys: 

"Repent and be baptized" . . . the what, 

"Every one of you" .... the who, 

"In the name of Jesus Christ" . . . the 
authority, 

"For the remission of sins" . . . the blessing, 

"And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" 
. the seal of salvation. 

"For the promise" of salvation (Joel 2: 32) "is 
unto you and to your children" . . . the Jews, 

"And to all that are afar off" . . . the Gen- 
tiles, 

^^Even as many as the Lord our God shall call" 
"Whosoever shall call on the name of the 
Lord." (Joel 2: 32). 

"Then they that gladly received his word were 
baptized: and the same day there were added unto 



Il6 I^ORKGtEAMS IN NATURE 

them about three thousand souls. And they con- 
tinued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fel- 
lowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers." 
(Acts 2: 38-47; Matt. 28: 20). 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST II 7 



III. 

TEN ARGUMENTS ON THE PRESENCE OF 
A DIVINE POWER. 

I. Such acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Christ 
by his murderers is very strong proof of His claims 
to be the Savior of the soul as well as of the body. 
In making that confession, they publicly admit their 
own guilt of murder and publicly proclaim that 
their rulers had rejected and crucified the Christ, the 
Son of God, who is now the risen and exalted Lord 
and Prince of Life. 

The apostles not only <2/iirmed but confirmed the 
fact of Christ's Lordship. They spoke by a divine 
power and made their hearers realize that they thus 
spoke: so that the evidence reached the conscious- 
ness of the hearers. Such evidence and kindred 
evidence was daily afforded until the fact of Christ's 
Lordship was established in the minds of ' 'multi- 
tudes of priests who became obedient to the faith." 
(Acts 6: 7). It was further confirmed till miracu- 
lous proof could add no new weight to the evidence 
adduced. (Luke 19: 31). 

In the various epistles the apostles make the 
claim to have spoken by a divine power to the be- 
lievers addressed; and hence the forgery of these 
epistles would have been impossible of success. The 
churches were established many years before a single 



Il8 F^ORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

line of the New Testament was penned. The epis- 
tles were written to believers in Christ. These epis- 
tles assume, as known and received by the churches, 
all the cardinal facts of the gospel. The Gospels 
record in part only, the facts and the evidence on 
which the apostles and primitive Christians based 
their faith in Christ. But these facts and this evi- 
dence, the writers pen in order that their readers 
might believe that Jesus is the Christ. (John 20: 30, 
31). Their own faith, however, rested upon the 
oral testimony of Jesus and His miracles wrought by 
Him in person in their presence, or through His 
apostles. The faith of the apostolic converts to 
Christ rested upon (i) personal observation and 
experience of Christ's miracles; and (2) upon the 
oral testimony of the apostles as confirmed by the 
'^demonstration of the Spirit and of power." (i 
Cor. 2:4, 5). ''The same works that I do," said 
Jesus, "bear witness of me." The church can 
never pass this proof. "Lo, I am with you alway, 
even to the end of the world." (Read Heb. 2: 1-4). 
This great salvation "<^/ the first began to be 
spoken by the Lord." "It was confirmed unto us," 
says the writer, "by them that heard Him." In 
making this confirmation "God bore them witness 
both with signs and wonders and divers miracles, 
and gifts of the Holy Spirit." "Of this salvation," 
says another writer, "the prophets have inquired 
and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace 
that should come unto you^^ — believers in Christ. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST II 9 

^'They searched [their own prophecies to know] 
what time and what manner of time the Spirit of 
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testi- 
fied before hand the sufferings of Christ and the 
glory that should follow/' (See Isa. 53: 11). The 
mystery was too profound for them to fathom. 
*'Yet,'' says the writer, ^'unto them the vision was 
revealed," but not in the light of experience (Matt. 
13: 17), ^'so that they could not minister unto them- 
selves but, unto us, they did minister, the things 
which are now reported unto you by them that have 
preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit 
sent down from heaven." So profound was this 
mystery, says the writer, that even ^'the angels de- 
sired to look into it." (i Pet. i: 10-12). 

This same writer, as he was nearing the close of his 
life, says that he would endeavor that Christians, 
after his decease, should have the ground of their 
salvation always in remembrance. (2 Pet. i: 15). 
We find that purpose executed in Mark's Gospel, 
written at the dictation of Peter. Already unbe- 
lievers were beginning to call the gospel cunningly 
devised fables. How appropriate then that the last 
letter from this great apostle should contain these 
assuring words: ^'We have not followed cunningly 
devised fables when we 7nade known unto you the 
power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but 
were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He re- 
ceived from the Father honor and glory when there 
came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, 



I20 FOREGLBAMS IN NATURE 

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 
And this voice, which came from heaven, we heard 
when we were with Him in the holy mount.'' (2 
Pet. i: 16-18). 

II. A few days later this divine power enabled 
Peter to heal a notable cripple at the Beautiful Gate 
of the Temple. This man was lame from birth, and 
was carried daily by friends to this gate to ask alms 
of those who entered. But he was doing more. He 
was getting ready an audience for the apostles of 
Christ. Every adult in Jerusalem, every little boy 
and girl in the Holy City, must have known of his 
sad condition. Myriads of worshipers in Palestine, 
who came up from all parts to worship, had seen and 
known him. 

One day, as Peter and John went up to the tem- 
ple, the cripple asked alms of them. Peter replied, 
* 'Look on us.'' The man gave heed, expecting to 
receive alms. But Peter said, ''Silver and gold have 
I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. In the 
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." 
"He, leaping up, stood and walked, and entered 
with them into the temple, walking and leaping and 
praising God." And all the people greatly won- 
dered at what was done. 

Peter answers this wondering gaze, saying, "Ye 
men of Israel, why marvel ye at this, or why look 
ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power 
and holiness we have made this man to walk?" The 
real cause for marvel lay not in the healing, but in 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 121 

the presence of the divine power from on high. He 
now relates this power to Jesus of Nazareth, as fol- 
lows: 

1. *^God hath glorified His Son Jesus, whom ye 
delivered up and denied. 

2. ^'Ye denied Him in the presence of Pilate, 
when he was determined to let Him go. 

3. '^Ye desired a murderer to be granted unto you 
and killed the Prince of lyife, whom God hath raised 
up; whereof we are witnesses. 

4. ''And in His name, through faith in His name, 
this man hath this perfect soundness in the presence 
of you all." (Acts HI). 

Five thousand more believed in Jesus. But the 
sermon is brought to an abrupt close by the arrest of 
the apostles ^^ because they preached through Jesus the 
resurrection of the dead, ' ' 

On the morrow they were brought into the pres- 
ence of the elders and scribes and the high priest 
and many others of note. They were asked, ''By 
what power or by what name have ye done this?" 
Peter replied, "Be it known unto you all, and to all 
the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God 
raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man 
stand here before you whole. ' ' "Now, when they saw 
the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that 
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they mar- 
veled; and they took knowledge of them that they 
had been with Jesus. And beholding the man that 
8 



122 FOREGLBAMS IN NATURE 

was healed standing with them, they could say noth- 
ing against it.'' (Acts IV.) What a change had 
come over that little band since the night of the be- 
trayal! A council is now held. The question was, 
^*What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a 
notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest 
to all that dwell at Jerusalem; and we cannot deny 
it." That cripple was faithfully performing his 
part as a preacher of the gospel. And Jesus was 
redeeming His pledge: ''I will give you a mouth 
and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be 
able to gainsay nor resist." (Luke 21:15). 

Where, now, was Caiaphas's doctrine of expedi- 
ency! What is to become of the argument begotten 
of large money! One man had been put to death to 
save their place and nation, and twelve more had 
come in His stead! And no command or threat or 
punishment of men could dissuade them from preach- 
ing the gospel of the risen Christ. And that august 
body ''could find no way by which to punish them for 
contempt of court because of the people; for all men 
glorified God for that which was done." A divine 
power was evidently reaching down. We cannot 
deny it^ was the verdict of that council. 

III. A few days later this same power enabled 
Peter to detect and expose the hypocrisy of Ananias 
and Sapphira, on account of which they were both 
struck dead. The Spirit of God cannot be deceived, 
Asa result of this, ''great fear came upon all the 
church and upon as many as heard these things. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 123 

And by the hands of the apostles many signs and 
wonders were wrought among the people. '* The 
faith of the people in the presence of a divine power 
with Peter moved them to bring forth their sick into 
the streets, that even the shadow of Peter might fall 
upon some of them. There was no treatment given. 
Peter's method was very simple. ^Tn the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!'' and 
the work was done. (Acts V.) 

IV. We read again: '^Then came a multitude out 
of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing 
sick folks and them that were possessed with unclean 
spirits; and they were healed every one." (Acts V.) 

Every new healing was a new proof that the rulers 
were guilty of murdering the Son of God, and that 
Jesus was reigning in the hearts of his followers. 
The common people saw the import of these mira- 
cles, and the rulers were compelled to take action. 
In this particular the miracles wrought by Christ and 
His apostles have no parallel. The record stands: 
^'A notable miracle hath been done by them. It is 
manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem, and we can 
not deny it." In this case we read. Healed every 
one, 

V. '^Philip went down to the city of Samaria 
and preached Christ unto them. And the people 
with one accord gave heed unto those things which 
Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which 
he did. For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, 
came out of many that were possessed with them; 



124 I^OREGLKAMS IN NATURE 

and many that were lame were healed. And there 
was great joy in that city." (Acts VIII. ) 

VI. Peter became a missionary. ''As he passed 
through all quarters, he came down also to the saints 
which dwelt at Lydda. And finding a man named 
^neas, which had kept his bed eight years and was 
sick of the palsy, Peter said unto him, ^neas, Jesus 
Christ maketh thee whole. Arise and make thy bed. 
And he arose immediately. And all that dwelt at 
lyydda and Saron saw him and turned unto the 
L/ord." (Acts IX.) This healing was the basis for 
belief in Jesus as the author of salvation in the 
highest and noblest sense of the term. 

VII. Joppa sees, hears and believes in the Lord. 
A certain woman, Tabitha, or Dorcas, lived there. 
''She was full of good works and almsdeeds which 
she did." But death came. Peter was called, and 
"all the widows stood by him weeping and showing 
the coats Dorcas made while she was with them." 
These tokens of love and humanity seemed to say. 
Call her back to life. Peter put all the mourners 
forth. He kneeled down and prayed. He then 
called, Tabitha, arise! She opened her eyes; when 
she saw Peter she sat up. He gave her his hand, 
lifted her up, and having called the saints and wid- 
ows, he presented her alive. And it was known 
throughout all Joppa, and many turned unto the 
Lord. (Acts IX.) Again the fact of physical heal- 
ing through Christ becomes the basis for belief in 
Him as the Savior from sin. 



OF RKDEMPTION IN CHRIS'T 125 

VIII. We next notice some ^ ^special miracles by 
the hand of Paul.'' He who once '^made havoc of 
the church'' *^now preaches the faith that he had so 
ardently labored to destroy." He began at the head- 
quarters of the enemy's camp. ''For two years he 
disputed daily in the school of one Tyrannus." The 
result was that ''all they who dwelt in Asia Minor 
heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and 
Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the 
hands of Paul; so that from his body were brought 
unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the dis- 
eases departed from them and evil spirits went out 
of them." (Acts XIX.) 

IX. ''''Whom the world cannot receive, ^^ "Then 
certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon 
them to call over them which had evil spirits the 
name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure thee by 
Jesus whom Paul preacheth. x\nd there were seven 
sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, 
who did so. iVnd the spirit answered and said, Jesus 
I know and Paul I know, but who are ye? x\nd the 
man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and 
overcame them and prevailed against them, so that 
they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 
And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks at 
Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of 
the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that be- 
lieved came and confessed and showed their deeds. 
Many of them also which used curious arts brought 
their books and burned them before all men; and 
they counted the price of them, and found it fifty 



126 I^OREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

thousand pieces of silver. So miglitily grew the 
word of the Lord and prevailed." (John 14:17; 
Acts 19:13-20; 2 Cor. 10:4, 5)- 

X. The Lord Jesus vs, the gods of heathenism. 
The proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus not only 
alleged against the rulers of the Jews the guilt of mur- 
dering the Christ, but it opposed and sought to over- 
throw every form of idolatry and to uproot every 
pagan institution with which it came into contact. 
Hear Demetrius, the silversmith at Ephesus, reason 
on this subject: ''Sirs, ye know that by this craft we 
have our wealth. Moreover, ye see and hear that 
not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all 
Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away 
much people, saying they be no gods which are 
made with hands; so that not only this our craft is 
in danger to be set at naught, but also that the tem- 
ple of the goddess Diana should be despised and her 
magnificence be destroyed whom all Asia and the 
world worshippeth.'' The forecast of Demetrius is 
verified in history. Wherever the gospel has gone 
heathen temples have crumbled into ruins, and with 
these have departed the false gods and all the disgust- 
ing and cruel practices of false religions. And 
wherever this gospel has not come, gods many and 
lords many are yet to be found; the rites and cere- 
monies of false religions, as cruel, disgusting and 
debasing as those of ancient Greece, Ephesus and 
Rome, fill their votaries with ignorance and vice, 
superstition and death. ''// is the power of God unto 
salvation unto every one that believeth, ' ' ( Rom. i : 16) . 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 127 

IV. 

CHRIST'S CONCEPTION UNIQUE. 

God had said through Isaiah of some great one: 
'^I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He 
shall divide the spoil with the strong: because He 
hath poured out His soul unto death; and He was 
numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the 
sin of many, and He made intercession for the trans- 
gressors/' 

The conception of a world-wide kingdom was not 
the result of an antecedent expectation on the part 
of the Jews. The Jews were incapable of conceiving 
an efficient basis for such a kingdom. (Rom. i6: 25, 
26; I Cor. 2:7-16; Eph. 2:11-22; 3: 3-15). See 
reasons why they rejected Christ, pp. 68-70. 

The Jewish conception of the Messiah's kingdom 
excluded from their minds the real nature of that 
kingdom. (Matt. 3: 9; Luke 17: 20, 21; John 3: 3- 
5; Rom. 14: 17). 

The basis of that kingdom was unknown and 
unknowable to the Jew prior to the death of Christ. 
(Matt. 11: 27; Isa. 28: 16; Matt. 16: 16-18; i Cor. 
2: 8, 9; John 12: 34; Heb. i: 8, 9; Phs. 2: 5-11; 
Matt. 22: 41-45). 

The ineans of establishing and maintaining the 
Messiah's kingdom was iink7iown and unk7towable 
to the Jews because of their preconceived fleshly 



138 FORKGLEAMS IN NAI'URE 

notions. (Luke 24: 25-27; Matt. 16: 21-23; Mark 
9: 10; Ivuke 24: 46, 47; Mark 16: 15, 16; i Cor. i: 
21-23; Rom. i: 16). 

The conception of Jesus is that of a world-wide 
ruler through being a world-wide Savior. 

Jesus died on the cross ^ A dead man can not es- 
tablish and maintain a kingdom. But the kingdom 
of Christ is here. It could not begin before Christ 
became king. That fact could be known only by a 
proclamation from the eternal throne, (i Cor. 12: 
3). This came through the power from on high. 
(Acts II). The evidence addressed the eye, the ear 
and the consciousness of the hearers. It reached 
the experience of those who accepted the Christ. It 
was evidenced to others through '^ signs and won- 
ders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy 
Spirit" until further miraculous proof would add 
no new weight to their testimony. (Luke 16: 31). 
Now these proofs were given prior to the record 
several years; and those to whom the epistles were 
written are said directly or by implication to have 
witnessed them; so that the epistles could not have 
been forged. 



01^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 129 

V. 

EPISTLES NOT FORGED. 

The Roman letter was written prior to Paul's 
visit to Rome. (Rom. i: 13). He alleges that he 
wrought many signs and wonders by the Holy Spirit 
to cause the Gentiles to believe. (Rom. 15: 15-20). 
Had this allegation been false his letter would 
never have gained credence. 

The Corinthian epistles could not have been 
forged. The testimony of Christ was confirmed in 
the church at Corinth, (i Cor. i: 5, 6; 2: 1-13; 9: 
I, 2; 12: i-io; 15: 1-8; 16: 12, 17, 18; 2 Cor. i: 19; 
3:1-16; 7:6-8; 11:1-5; 12:12). Eye-witnesses of 
the resurrection were living when this epistle was 
written, (i Cor. 15: 6). 

The Galatian epistle could not have been forged. 

(1:6-9, 23; 3-I-5; 4: 13) 14)- 

The Ephesian epistle could not have been forged. 
(i: 13; 3: 1-9; 4: 11-16, 30; 6: 19-22). 

The Philippian epistle could not have been forged. 
(i: 3-6, 12-14; 2: 25-29; 4: 5, 15-18). 

The Colossian epistle could not have been forged. 
(4:7-10, 12-17). 

The Thessalonian epistles could not have been 
forged. (I. i: 4-10; 2: i, 2; 3: 1-7; 5: 27; H. 2: 
1-17. Compare I. 4: 13-18). 

The epistles to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon, 



130 I^OREiGLKAMS IN NATURE 

bear upon their face the evidence of genuineness and 
the impossibility of forgery. 

The epistle to the Hebrews argues the superiority 
of the Christian dispensation over the Jewish, from 
prophecy as confirmed by '^ signs and wonders and 
divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit." (2: 
1-4). These miracles were, it is alleged, witnessed 
by the persons addressed and by the writer. It is 
admitted that the first covenant contained ordinances 
of divine service, but it is argued that these could 
not effect salvation for man. They left man in his 
sins — and in the grave. They emphasized the need 
of a Savior and clearly foreshadowed the great sal- 
vation from sin and death. 

Evidently this work could not have been written 
this side of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction 
of the temple, A. D. 70. That event forever set 
aside the Jewish claim to the permanency of the law 
of Moses and at the same time furnished the most 
decisive proof that the Christ had come. (Deut. 18: 
15-18; Mai. 3: i). 

From this event the priority of the dates of the 
Gospels and Acts can be fixed to a moral certainty. 
The prediction of the overthrow of Jerusalem had 
been made by Christ and was a matter of common 
knowledge. (John 4: 21; Matt. 24: 2; Mark 13: 2; 
lyuke 21:6). Stephen's death grew out of his litter- 
ing what the Jews considered blasphemous words 
against Moses and the temple. (Acts 6:13-15). The 
Gospels and Acts leave the temple still standing. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I3I 

Paul's history is minutely traced till lie arrives at 
Rome as a prisoner. Acts leaves the apostle teach- 
ing in his own hired house. Had Paul been be- 
headed prior to the date of writing Acts, it is pass- 
ing strange that no account of it is given in Acts. 
And had Jerusalem fallen prior to the dates of the 
Gospels, or of the Hebrew epistle, it is unaccount- 
able that no mention is made of it in support of 
Christ's claims and of the transitory nature of the 
Jewish religion. Would an accurate historian omit 
such an important event as the downfall of the 
chosen nation! And would a very able counsel omit 
the strongest argument in the case! Nay, verily. 
But enough has been said to show that the records 
are thoroughly reliable, from an historic standpoint. 



133 li'OllEGl.KAMS IN NATURK 

VI. 

A CHAPTER ON THE RESURRECTION. 

It will be conceded by all, 

I. That an impostor conld not raise himself, and 
that God would not raise an impostor. 

3. That if Jesus rose. He was not an impostor, 
but what He claimed to be, viz., the Son of God. 
(Rom. 1:4). 

3. But if Jesus is the Son of God, He has all au- 
thority and must be obeyed upon the penalty of 
damnation. (Mark XVI). 

I. I.ET us SUPPOSE THAT JESUS DID NOT RISE. 

On this supposition the following conclusions 
must necessarily follow: 

1. That the apostles of Christ were false wit- 
nesses of God, for they testified that God raised 
Jesus from the dead, (i Cor. XV). 

2. That believers in Christ are yet in their sins, 
since Christ is among the dead. 

3. That all the dead in Christ have perished. 
The gates of Hades have prevailed. 

4. That the faith of the Christian is vain: the 
heavenly mansions become but dreams. 

5. That the apostles of Christ were of all men 
the most miserable, for they were, on this supposi- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 33 

tion, not only the greatest of liars and deceivers, but 
they lost their standing in society, gained a life of 
persecution and suffering, and finally suffered death 
for promulgating a cardinal falsehood! (Acts 4:2, 
28-33; Acts XXVI). 

To this reasoning of Paul we add another item: 
6. That a dead man has performed the miracle 
of the ages in establishing and maintaining His 
kingdom without a shadow of proof for the cardinal 
fact! 

II. BUT LET us SUPPOSE THAT JESUS DID RISE. 

On this supposition the following conclusions nec- 
essarily follow: 

1 . That the apostles of Christ were not false wit- 
nesses of God. 

2. That Christians are not yet in their sins. 

3. That the dead in Christ have not perished. 

4. That the Christian's faith in Christ and im- 
mortality and eternal life is not vain. 

5. That the apostles of Christ were not of all 
men most miserable, but were the most highly hon- 
ored and will be eternally happy. 

6. And, finally, the founding and the maintain- 
ing and the increase of His kingdom rest upon the 
incontestable facts of His resurrection and of His in- 
auguration as King upon the throne of the universe. 

No men ever gave better evidence of sincerity 
than did the apostles of Jesus Christ in proclaiming 
the resurrection and the authority of Christ. In 



134 KOREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

doing so they publicly arraigned the rulers of mur- 
dering the Christ; so that after a life of continual 
sacrifice and suffering they sealed their testimony 
with their blood. They not only testified under 
oath before the Sanhedrin, but they confirmed their 
testimony by miracles, and their sincerity by their 
blood. If there be any sanctity in an oath, surely 
we have it here. Their cross-examination of suffer- 
ings (2 Cor. 11:23-33; 6:4-10; Acts XXVI.) was so 
severe as to have broken down all direct testimony 
had it been false. But the facts of Christ's death, 
of His burial, of His resurrection, of His ascension, 
of His coronation, as evidenced by the presence of a 
divine power in His name, were such as to render 
deception on their part impossible. Their sincerity 
cannot be doubted, and hence it follows that the 
Lordship of Jesus is an established fact, or all his- 
tory is incredible. 



OK RE:DeMPTlON IN CHRIST 1 35 

VII. 
JESUS THE SAVIOR OF THE SOUL. 

We base His claims upon the following premises: 

1. Supernatural facts addressed to the five senses 
in support of this higher claim. (Matt. 9:1-8). 

2. That such facts were addressed to enemies as 
well as friends, and in the open sunlight of heaven. 

3. That monumental and commemorative insti- 
tutions expressive of His authority were instituted 
at or near the time of the facts which they are in- 
tended to perpetuate, as baptism, the Ivord's Supper, 
and the Lord's day. None of these could have been 
perpetuated if the facts of the death, the burial, the 
resurrection and the Lordship of Christ had not 
been fully established. 

4. Upon the fact of the perpetuity of these mon- 
uments among believers till the facts became mat- 
ters of general credence, and afterwards of genuine 
record by eye-witnesses and ear- witnesses. (Luke 
1:1-4; John 20:30, 31; I John 1:1-4; i Pet. 1:12-21; 
Heb. 2:1-4). 

5. That such record has come down to us un- 
changed as to essentials. (See pp. 127-129). 

6. Upon the evidence of experience in a new 
conception of God, a new love, a new life, a new 
hope in men and women saved from their sins, — the 
ever-living, abiding, present and unimpeachable 



136 F^OREGLBAMS IN NATURE 

witnesses to the reign of Christ in the heart. 

7. And, finally, the evidence afforded by these 
facts anciently to the observation of believers, and 
in onr day, especially by the above proof, as seen in 
the regenerated lives of true Christians, and in the 
Christian home, and in the Christian community, 
and in the Christianized state or nation. Jesus speaks 
in the living present: ^^The same works that I do 
bear witness of Me.'' The skeptic is noted for re- 
maining within the sphere of that influence, for well 
he knows that there is no security to life or prop- 
erty outside that influence. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 37 



VIII. 

THAT SO-CAIvLED MOST INFAMOUS PAS- 
SAGE. 

'*He that believeth not shall be condemned.'' 
(Mark XVI). The skeptic regards this as the most 
infamous passage in the Bible. Why he should so 
conclude we cannot understand. If the Bible came 
from God we might expect to find in it just such a 
statement, since it is but the wording of law as seen 
in nature. Besides, the skeptic virtually admits it 
as seen in the fact referred to above. If disbelievers 
in Christ could here and now be left to themselves, 
we venture the statement that no other argument 
would be needed to convince even the skeptic of the 
truth of the passage. They will have a long time 
in the coming world to test its accuracy. It might 
be well for them to test it here and now in some re- 
mote colony of genuine skeptics where they have no 
God, no Christ, no Bible, no Church, no Gospel, no 
Sunday-school, no Religious Literature, — where 
pure, unadulterated skepticism is the sole law of the 
land! Will some agnostic philosopher test the merits 
of his system and state the actual results for the bene- 
fit of his fellow-men? Until such test is made we 
shall be compelled to doubt their sincerity. And 
until such test shall result in better men and women 
9 



138 F^OREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

and better society and government than belief in 
Christ has produced, we shall be logically compelled 
to accept the passage as true. 



OF rbde;mption in christ , 139 

IX. 

THE SOLE ISSUE OF THE GOSPEL. 

''Go YK into all the world and preach the gospel to 
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved, but he that disbelieveth shall be con- 
demned.'' (Mark 16:15,16; Matt. 28:18-20; Luke 

24:46, 47)- 

Man's greatest need is to be believed in. Hu- 
manly speaking, God believes in man. We might 
argue this from the two greatest facts mentioned in 
the Bible, viz., that ''God created man in His own 
image and after His own likeness," (Gen. I); and 
secondly, that "God took upon Himself the form of 
man," "became incarnate." (John 1:14; Phs. 2: 
5-11). "Made in the likeness of men." "Found in 
fashion as a man." 

We may further observe that man's greatest bless- 
ings come through his belief in God. God has so 
ordered nature and so constituted man that man 
must believe or perish. The passage cited presents 
the sole issue of the gospel to the world. The 
Hol}^ Spirit should convince the world of sin: "be- 
cause they believe not on Me." "If ye believe not 
that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." (John 8: 
24). "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom 
of God," (i Cor. 1:12.) '* He is made unto us wis- 



140 FOREGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

dom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption/' 
(i Cor. 1:30,31). 

We are glad to know that skeptics perceive the 
real issue. We want them to face it squarely. We 
have no apologies whatever to make for this so- 
called most infamous passage, but will proceed to 
state why we believe it to be true. 

1. Because such disbeliever in Christ alleges that 
all the ancient prophets who prophesied of Christ 
and the glory to follow His sufferings, were falsifiers. 

2. Because he alleges that the Holy Spirit of 
prophecy by which they spoke, falsified; and this is 
alleged, too, in the face of the fulfillment of proph- 
ecy as recorded in sacred and corroborated by pro- 
fane history. 

3. Because he alleges that the shepherds, and 
the angels who sang at Christ's birth, the magi from 
the east, and John the Baptist, were all falsifiers. 

4. Because he alleges that the apostles of Jesus 
Christ who testified to His death. His burial and His 
resurrection, according to prophecy; who testified to 
His life with them after His death; and of His ascen- 
sion from their presence; and who died as martyrs to 
the proclamation of these facts, were all falsifiers. 

5. Because He alleges that God Himself in His 
testimony at Christ's baptism, at the transfiguration, 
at His death and at His resurrection, falsified. 

6. Because he alleges that the apostles of Christ 
who preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent 
down from heaven, so as to convince the murderers 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I4I 

of Jesus of its truth and to make believers among all 
nations, were falsifiers. 

7. Because lie takes his stand with Judas, Caia- 
phas, Pontius Pilate, and all the mob who cried, 
''His blood be upon us and our children.'' He vir- 
tually says all these did right. On this ground of 
condemnation he takes his stand. 

8. Because he is even more criminal than these, 
for he takes this stand in the light of the downfall 
of that nation because of their rejection of Christ 
(Deut. 18:15-18); in the light of nineteen centuries 
of Christ's rule over men; and in the face of living 
witnesses who have been and are saved from their 
sins through Christ. Of this latter fact observers 
can know to a moral certainty. No man, no nation, 
ever fell by belief in Christ. No unbeliever in Christ 
overcomes the world, 

9. And finally: Because he ignores the only pure 
and holy ideal of life ever given to man. For if one 
disbelieves the gospel of Christ (i Cor. 15:1-8), he 
will not love Him; and hence he will not confess 
Him (Matt. 10:32, 33); and hence he will not obey 
Him; and hence cannot become like Him; and hence 
he cannot come into His presence; for ''Christ in 
you," says Paul, "is the hope of glory." "He that 
is not with Me is against Me," said Jesus. "De- 
part from Me. I never knew you," must be the 
righteous verdict. To become heirs with Him we 
must come into His kingdom, under His yoke, and 
obedient to His will. This is not only gospel, but 



142 FORKGI.EAMS IN NATURE 

plain, sober sense, from which there can be no ap- 
peal. It will not avail to say, **I did not know." 
Nothing but criminal neglect can account for not 
knowing. '4f the word spoken by angels was 
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience 
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we 
escape if we neglect so great salvation?^ ^ (Heb. 2: 

1-4)- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 143 

X. 

THE RECORD A UNIT. 

Christ left no record. All our knowledge of Him 
comes through His apostles; and hence no man can 
believe in Christ and deny the record they gave of 
Him. And no man can believe that record, or any 
considerable portion of it, if he discards the mira- 
cles there recorded. The teaching is founded largely 
upon miracles. The miracle and teaching must 
stand or fall together. Christ's miracles laid the 
foundation of His recognized authoritv and our be- 
lief in Him as the Savior from our sins. Does He 
feed the thousands in the desert? He is the bread of 
life. Does He speak the word of forgiveness? He 
then heals the paralytic by the word of His power. 
Does He claim to be the light of the world? He 
then restores sight to the blind from birth. Does 
He claim to be the resurrection and the life? He 
calls the dead back to their friends. Do we wish 
e\T.dence of His world-wide authority? We have it 
in the transfiguration, where representatives from 
ever}' state of man were present to witness His glor}' 
and to hear the Father command, '^Hear ye Him.'' 
That voice reaches the underworld. (John 5:25-29;. 

But His authority, as we have seen, rests, in its 
last analysis, upon the fact of His Lordship; for this 
fact alone gives weight to all His promises and all 



144 FOREGLEAMS IN NATURE 

His threats, and without which they must be void 
of meaning. To speak of Him as the wisest of 
teachers, the noblest and kingliest of men and yet — 
mistaken! and this, too, in the light of what he 
has done and is now doing for man, is to confess 
one's self lacking in sober sense or common honesty. 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 45 

XI. 

THE HARMONY OF OUR CLAIM. 

The tiller of the soil may rightly claim that 
'^God has not left Himself without witness in 
that He did good and gave us rain from heaven and 
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
gladness.'' 

The physician may truthfully claim, and that 
claim will be conceded by all sufferers, that God is 
not willing that any should perish; since He has 
provided adequate remedies in nature for all our 
physical^ ailments. But law must be respected. 

The man of science is finding out through faith 
in a God of order and system and law, that the 
hitherto unknown and unutilized forces in nature 
afford adequate power for regenerating the wild, 
rugged and barren wastes; for causing the wilder- 
ness and the solitary places to be glad and the desert 
to blossom as a rose. Here again law must be 
obeyed. 

And the teacher of the gospel may claim with 
equal assurance that the same God who provides for 
all of man's lower wants has made ample provision for 
his spiritual wants; for the regeneration of his spir- 
itual nature. Evidently man is not in harmony 
with moral law — not in harmony with God on the 
spiritual plane. God did not make man as we now 
see him. It must also be evident that man, through 



146 FOREGIvEAMS IN NATURE 

rejecting the knowledge of God and professing him- 
self to be wise, has shown himself, in his school of 
experience, to be incompetent to attain to the glory 
of God. Evolntion at this point is a failure. Re- 
demption alone can reach us. Motives higher than 
earth and beyond the grave must be brought to bear 
upon man's life and conduct here, in order to real 
progress in a higher life. 

Salvation from sin becomes the profoundest 
problem in the universe. How to redeem a soul 
from sin, to bring it back into harmony with God, 
has been the problem of the ages. It is a problem 
of motives. Can a man in sin be moved to love 
God? ''We love Him because He first loved us." 
Can a man in sin be moved to believe in God? We 
believe in Him because He first believed in us. 
''God was manifest in the flesh.'' He came into 
our midst. He gave man a model life. He mani- 
fested His compassion for our suffering, His pity in 
forgiving. He wept tears of love and sympathy for 
man. He went about doing good. He died breath- 
ing a prayer of forgiveness for His enemies. He 
rose to assure us of a life beyond the grave. He 
ascended into heaven and invites man to follow 
Him. How to teach man to look beyond the scenes 
of earth with a well-grounded assurance of peace 
and happiness, is solved in the Bible alone. Espe- 
cially is this made clear by the life, by the death, by 
the resurrection, by the ascension and coronation of 
Jesus; and finally by the reign of love and joy and 
peace of Christ in the soul. 



OF^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 47 



A CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 

^'Call His name Jesus; for He shall save His peo- 
ple from their sins." ''This is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came 
into the world to save sinners." He saves the 
whole man by saving him from his sins. ''I am not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
''Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." "If a man love 
Me he will keep My words: and My Father will love 
him and We will come unto him and make Our 
abode with him." "Nevertheless the foundation of 
God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord 
knoweth (approveth) them that are His." "I 
know whom I have believed and am persuaded that 
He is able to keep that which I have committed 
unto Him against that day." "If any man willeth 
to do His will. He shall know of the doctrine 
whether it be of God or whether I speak of Myself. ' ' 
(John 7: 17). And to all such, Jesus says, "If ye 
continue in My word then are ye My disciples in- 
deed: and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall 
make you free," i, ^. , free from doubt, free from 
error, free from sin. (John 8: 31). This is the 
Master's method of coming to know the truth. It 
is not to be found in speculation nor by the so- 
called scientific method, but by the divine method 



148 F^ORKGLKAMS IN NATURE 

of faith. No man that wills not to do His will can 
ever come to know the truth: because he ignores the 
divine method and never complies with the divine 
test. Millions adown the ages past and millions of 
to-day have proved Him and found Him true. Who 
that ever willed to do His will and that co7itinued in 
His word dares to say it is false? The gospel saves 
every one who believes it. It begets a new faith, anew 
love, a new life, a new hope — a new creature. This 
is no theory — it is a matter of consciousness, expe- 
rience and observation. It is as certain in its oper- 
ations in the believer as the law of gravitation in the 
material realm. 

And thus it is seen that what nature, and the 
longings of the soul, and the types and the shadows 
of the ancient religion, and the Spirit of God in the 
prophets foretold should come to pass, have been ful- 
filled in Jesus of Nazareth: and one may know by 
observation and experience that it is true. 

Faith is the fundamental principle of proof; obe- 
dience is the rule of demonstration; and experience 
is the answer. By this method, put to the severest 
tests for sixty centuries, we are able to say, God is 
faithful. His promises never fail, whether in the 
kingdom of nature (Gen. 8:21,22; Acts 14:17), or in 
the kingdom of grace. (Heb. 10:38-11:40). So 
that as the chain of prophecy recedes into the 
past and the prophetic links come into view, look- 
ing back upon the innumerable links of fulfilled 
prophecy extending through sixty centuries, we may 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 49 

say with all the certainty of mathematical induction, 
True up to the limit of life or of Time itself, true at 
the limit. We bridge the chasm of death itself by 
His immutable promise, '^I am the resurrection and 
the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were 
dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth (we 
shall not all sleep, i Cor. 15:51) and believeth in 
Me, shall never die.'' '^Because I live ye shall live 
also." (John 11:25, ^6). 

Standing upon the unshaken facts and the eternal 
realities and the immutable promises of revealed re- 
ligion, Mr. Campbell puts into the mouth of the 
Last Man w^ords expressive of an undying hope and 
trust. The skeletons of nations lay around that 
lonely man, and the sole spectator of heaven was 
hiding his face in darkness, when he breaks forth 
in these words: 

"Go, Sun, tell the night that hides thy face, 
Thou sawest the last of Adam's race, 
On earth's sepulchral clod, 
The darkening universe defy 
To quench his immortality, 
Or shake his trust in God." 

When every vision of earthly hope is fading from 
view, and the soul seems to sink into the night of 
despair, our Master then opens to view the heavenly 
mansions of ''an inheritance that is incorruptible 
and undefiled and that fades not away, reserved in 
heaven for all who are kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in 
the last time." 



150 I^ORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

We believe and teach that nature proclaims to 
suffering humanity a Great Physician who could, if 
He so purposed, visit man in person. We believe 
and teach that such purpose on His part is manifest 
in the provision made in nature to relieve man of 
pain. ''God is not willing that any should perish," 
is an oracle of nature as certainly as of revelation. 
That purpose is further manifest in the universal, 
and therefore instinctive, belief in the existence of 
remedies in nature; and this is paralleled by the 
universal longing for a Great Deliverer from the 
thralldom of sin. We believe and teach that there 
has been an unbroken chain of evidence from the 
very beginning of the race to the present of a divine 
power ab extra nature^ as well as in nature, touch- 
ing man upon the plane of the physical, the intel- 
lectual and the spiritual. We believe and teach 
that the facts of the preservation of the race; of the 
laws for prevention of disease; of the laws of cure; 
and tlie fact of amputation; and the fact of special 
cures under the Jewish dispensation, and also under 
the Christian dispensation, — are each and all as 
clearly authenticated as any alleged fact of healing 
recorded in the annals of medicine. If this belief 
be not well-grounded, what physician will have the 
audacity to ask us to believe that he ever aided in 
effecting a cure! 

That the Great Physician has positively touched 
man along the lines of the spiritual is evident from 
the testimony of a great cloud of witnesses — patri- 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I51 

archs and prophets and saints in olden times, who, 
under the most unfavorable circumstances, put to 
the test the power, the wisdom, the truthfulness and 
veracity of God, and who, with unanimous voice, 
declare God is faithful; is evident from the testi- 
mony of apostles, evangelists and millions of mar- 
tyrs — a testimony sealed with their life's blood; is 
evident from the monuments and commemorative 
institutions that have come down through the cen- 
turies, as baptism, the Lord's Supper, the Lord's 
day; is evident from myriads of colleges, universi- 
ties, orphan homes, and kindred institutions, orig- 
inated and maintained by believers in God and in 
Christ; is evident from the church as a living monu- 
ment to the lyordship of Jesus Christ; and, finally, 
is evident from living witnesses to the grace of God 
through Christ, of men and women saved from their 
sins, even from the lowest haunts of vice and crime, 
and filled with an undying hope, the power of an 
endless life. This, we repeat, is not theory. It is 
a fact as patent to observation as any fact of phys- 
ical science. It derives its existence from the well- 
grounded faith in the cardinal facts of the Gospel; 
in the experience and life of the believer in Christ; 
in the consciousness of an inner peace and joy, and 
in an undying hope rooted and grounded in the love 
of God through Christ. Whatever critics may say, 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves to the uttermost 
every one who believes and obeys. 



152 FORBGLEAMS IN NATURE 

Its abiding forces of faith and hope and love are 
adequate to regenerate the world regardless of race, 
color or condition of life. It meets the deepest and 
noblest longings of the soul, showing itself to be 
nothing less than ^^the power of God unto salvation 
to every one that believes it." Its fruits are ''love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is 
no law.'' ''The end of the commandment is love 
out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a 
faith unfeigned." And this "love casts out all 
fear." It robs death of its sting and the grave of its 
terror, 

*'Alas! for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees! 
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 
Across the mournful marbles play! 
Who hath not learned in hours of Faith, 

The truth to Flesh and Sense unknown. 
That Life is ever Lord of Death, 

And Love can never lose its own." — Whittier. 

And now, dear reader, since there is a Great Phy- 
sician who has provided for all our spiritual wants; 
who kindly warns us against wrong-doing; who 
touches man with healing power from on high; who 
came in person to point our race to a higher and 
nobler life here; who opens to the vision of every 
true believer a life of peace and endless joy beyond 
the grave; who sent the Holy Spirit down from 



OF REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 53 

heaven to convince the world of sin and the neces- 
sity of becoming righteous because of a judgment to 
come (Acts 17:30,31); who now, as Prince of 
Peace, rules in the hearts of millions of the wisest 
and purest of earth; and who will one day bring 
your eveiy^ secret work and thought into judgment — 
will you not reverentl}^ lovingly and confidingly 
commit your case into His hands? 

Till time shall be no more, wherever and when- 
ever poor sinners shall feel their load of sin, the name 
of Jesus will live in the hearts of men and women. 
Empires may rise and fall, the proudest structures of 
man may crumble into ruins, but Jesus lives and 
reigns on. (Heb. i:8, 9). 

**The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 
Rocks fall to dust and mountains melt away; 
But fixed His word, His saving power remains, 
Thy realm forever lasts, Thine Own Messiah reigns." 

—Pope. 

So long as the millions redeemed and made white 
in the blood of the Lamb can look back to this 
world and remember the time when, and the place 
where, they first gave themselves to His loving serv- 
ice, the name of Jesus will live in the hearts of 
men: for Faith will one day lead the Christian into 
the heavenly mansions; Hope will invite him to 
pluck of the Tree of Life; and Love will fill his 
soul with everlasting peace and joy. 



154 FORBGLKAMS IN NATURE 

For we read: '^They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more: neither shall the sun light 
on them nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in 
the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall 
lead them into living fountains of waters." ^^And 
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 
there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the 
former things are passed away.'' 

No wonder this writer adds: ''Blessed are they 
that do His commandments that they may have 
a right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through 
the gates into the city." ''And there shall in no 
wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither 
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie: 
but they which are written in the Lamb's book of 
life." Who would not be a Christian! 

** In the cross of Christ I glory, 

Towering o*er the wrecks of time, 
AU the light of sacred story 

Gathers round its Head sublime. 

" When the woes of life o'ertake me, 
Hopes deceive and fears annoy, 
Never shall the cross forsake me; 
lyo! it glows with peace and joy. 

** When the sun of bliss is beaming 
Light and love upon my way, 
From the cross the radiance streaming, 
Adds more luster to the day, 



OK REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 55 

' Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure, 
By the cross are sanctified; 
Peace is there, that knows no measure, 
Joys that through all time abide." 



THE END. 



m^ 30 1900 



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